RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) - Divided by a twist of history 26 years ago, this remote town straddling the Gaza-Egypt border has been reunited in just as haphazard a fashion.
After the towering border wall slicing through Rafah was toppled earlier this week, long-separated relatives, friends and even former soccer buddies just had to walk a few yards to embrace and reminisce.
Some even dared to make plans for an uncertain future: One large Palestinian clan quickly married off four women to relatives on the Egyptian side. ''How can we leave the other side? We were always one place,'' said Kamal al-Nahal, 40, an uncle of one of the brides.
But almost three decades of separation have also produced marked differences in customs, building styles and dialect. Al-Nahal said he wasn't exactly impressed with Egyptian Rafah which, with mudbrick buildings and unpaved streets, has more of a village feel than its larger, bustling counterpart of multistory apartment buildings on the Gaza side.
http://www.newspress.com/Top/Article/article.jsp?Section=WORLD&ID=565233987233384030
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