Ordeal over for Gaza pilgrims
Hundreds stranded in Egypt after Hajj return home through Rafah crossing.
Two people, one carrying a large cloth bag, were the first to pass through the Rafah terminal, greeted by green-vested representatives of Hamas, the Palestinian group that rules Gaza.
The two were followed by a flood of returning pilgrims walking across the border.
“Thank God we made it. Our patience led us to results,” Samiha Qeshta, 59, an exhausted-looking pilgrim, said.
Israel had been pressuring Egypt not to let the pilgrims through the Rafah crossing because it said some may be carrying arms or money for Hamas.
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Three elderly pilgrims have so far died waiting to return home.
A number of the pilgrims told Al Jazeera earlier on Wednesday that they had received Egyptian instructions to transfer them on buses to the Egyptian side of Rafah border crossing.