At Border: Talk Of 'Extremely Bad' Conditions in Gaza; Hope For Aid Convoy

At the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip today, NPR's Peter Kenyon watched an increasingly rare sight -- Egyptian authorities were allowing some movement in and out of Gaza.

As Peter reported, those emerging from the Palestinian-controlled Gaza said that conditions there are "extremely bad" since neither Israel nor Egypt have allowed people or most goods to get in and out for weeks at a time. Both Egypt and Israel blame security concerns, because the militant group Hamas controls Gaza.

There's hope, Peter said, that a British-sponsored aid convoy will be getting to the crossing later today and will be allowed to go into Gaza.

But, clearly, Egyptian authorities are still tightly restricting movement across the line. Peter talked with a 64-year-old woman who said she got up at three in the morning to get to the crossing. She hasn't seen her three children and 11 grandchildren in Gaza, the woman said, for seven years.

She wasn't allowed to cross.

Here is the conversation Peter had with Morning Edition's Steve Inskeep: