Over 100 Gaza families flee Syria

More than 100 Palestinian families have fled Syria due to the deterioration in safety and security resulting from the uprising against President Bashar Assad, an official said Tuesday. Hamza Abu Shanab of the Gaza-based Palestinian Coalition for the Syrian Revolution told Ma'an that 105 families originally from the Gaza Strip have returned safely through Egypt's Rafah crossing in recent days. The families had business ties in Syria or were students studying at Syrian universities, Abu Shanab said. He says about 300 Palestinians were killed and 900 injured since the beginning of the turmoil in Syria. Some 10,000 Palestinians have been detained by Assad's forces, but not all of them remain in detention. Meanwhile Palestinian resistance leaders and fighters living in Syria have arrived in Gaza. One of them, he said, is Nidal Abu Kamil who was deported 20 years earlier. Islamic Jihad’s Ibrahim Shehada has also returned. Last Sunday Egyptian officials said 100 Palestinians residing in Damascus had arrived in Cairo en route to the Gaza Strip, as violence between Assad's regime and rebel fighters intensified. The Palestinian embassy in Cairo was liaising with Egyptian authorities to allow the Palestinians into Egypt after they left Syria without applying for visas due to the unstable situation. The Palestinians were not registered as refugees in Syria, but rather Gaza residents living there.