Hamas and Egypr to Work on Sealing Gaza Border

[Dr. A ♥ O 203]

Hamas and Egypt to Work on Sealing Gaza Border

Mahmud Hams/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Palestinians traveled Saturday along a section of the border fence between Gaza and Egypt that was breached in January.

By ISABEL KERSHNER

Published: February 3, 2008

JERUSALEM — Hamas said Saturday that it would cooperate with Egypt to close the breached border between Egypt and the Gaza Strip on Sunday.

Mahmoud Zahar, a senior Hamas official, said his group’s gunmen would be removed from the Gaza side of the border and that efforts would be made to avoid any violence or confrontation with Egyptian border guards. Mr. Zahar spoke on his return to Gaza after taking part in talks with Egyptian officials in Cairo.

Hamas, the militant Islamic group that controls Gaza, blew up sections of a wall along the border with Egypt on Jan. 23, days after Israel sealed its border crossings with Gaza in response to intensified rocket fire against Israel. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have since crossed in and out of Egypt to stock up on supplies and other merchandise.

On Friday, Egypt tried to stop Palestinian vehicles from crossing the border but Hamas militants were seen removing the metal barricades and spikes laid down by the Egyptian police.

“Egypt’s message was very clear, that Sunday should be the day to put an end to this scene,” Mr. Zahar told the Arab television station Al Jazeera on Saturday. He added that border control would be restored “gradually.”

In initial statements made upon their return to Gaza, Hamas officials did not repeat a demand by the group for a central role in controlling the border crossing, but said the operation of the border should be an Egyptian-Palestinian matter and not subject to Israeli control.

Before the Hamas takeover of Gaza last June, the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt was regulated by an agreement brokered by the United States after Israel withdrew from the area in 2005. Under its terms, forces loyal to the Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, controlled the Gaza side of the crossing in conjunction with European Union monitors, while Israel supervised the comings and goings from afar by video camera.

The crossing operated sporadically, with Israel deciding when it would be open or closed, citing security considerations. The crossing was formally closed in June when Hamas routed the forces loyal to Mr. Abbas and the European monitors left.

Mr. Abbas and Egypt favor returning to the 2005 agreement. Mr. Abbas was in Cairo for talks last week, and Javier Solana, the European Union foreign policy chief, was scheduled to arrive on Saturday for talks with President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and other senior officials.

Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman in Gaza, said Saturday that the European monitors would be welcome to return to Rafah, as long as their work was not subject to Israeli dictates.

Israeli officials said they would also be in favor of reviving the 2005 agreement. But it was not yet clear whether Israel would be demanding a supervisory role by video as in the past. “We don’t want to be the party that undermines an agreement,” said one Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity. “We want to be supportive of Egypt, of President Abbas and of the European Union,” he said.

The official added that whatever solution emerged must not jeopardize Israel’s security needs. He also said there was some skepticism in Jerusalem about whether the 2005 arrangement could still work. Even if Mr. Abbas placed his best people at the border, the official said, they would be vulnerable to pressure from Hamas.

An Israeli government spokesman, David Baker, said Saturday that “Hamas continues to destabilize the Gaza Strip and plunge it into mayhem, to the detriment of the Palestinian people.”

Israel has strictly controlled the flow of goods into Gaza since the Hamas takeover there, hoping to pressure Hamas into changing its positions, or to erode support for it among Gaza’s largely impoverished population of 1.5 million. The Hamas leader in Gaza, Ismail Haniya, was quoted Saturday in the pro-Hamas newspaper Palestine as saying that Gaza must forge stronger economic ties with Egypt as a way of disconnecting from Israel.

Several Israeli officials expressed a similar hope that Gaza would look more toward Egypt and become less dependent on Israel after the breach of the border in January.

Egyptian security forces arrested at least 14 Palestinian militants found with weapons and explosives on Friday and Saturday in the Sinai desert, not far from the breached Gaza border, according to news reports.

On Saturday evening, Palestinian militants launched six rockets at Israel from Gaza, and one landed in the Israeli border town of Sderot, an Israeli Army spokeswoman said.

Taghreed El-Khodary contributed reporting from Gaza City.

Source

[Dr. A ♥ O 203]

Palestinian shot dead after Egypt-Gaza border sealed

5 hours ago

RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AFP) — A Palestinian was shot dead and six people were wounded, including three Egyptian policemen, in an exchange of fire on Monday after the Gaza border was sealed, Palestinian medics and Egypt's news agency MENA said.

The Palestinian sources named the dead man as Hamed al-Qadi, 40.

In addition to the three other Palestinians shot and wounded at the Rafah border post, 12 people were treated for tear-gas inhalation as Egyptian police opened fire to disperse a protest by a crowd of angry Gazans, medics said.

MENA said three policemen were hurt on Egypt's side of the border, one by grenade shrapnel and two by stones. They were being treated at Rafah hospital along with more than 30 other police suffering from tear-gas inhalation.

An Egyptian security source said the situation was returning to calm late on Monday with Hamas's Executive Force police appealing over loud-hailers for Gazans to go home, although sporadic gunfire could still be heard.

"Egyptian police opened fire and used tear-gas to prevent groups (of Palestinians) from crossing the border," MENA said. "Egyptian forces showed restraint and continue to control the frontier."

Earlier, Egyptian and Hamas forces completely sealed the border between Egypt and the Gaza Strip, closing the last passage through which people were allowed to return home.

The clashes erupted in the late afternoon when dozens of Palestinian youths threw stones and gunmen opened fire across the border at Egyptian security forces in riot gear, an AFP correspondent said.

The helmeted Egyptians at first retaliated by firing shots into the air and tear-gas and also by throwing rocks back at the Palestinians, about 2,000 of whom had gathered hoping in vain to be able to cross to the other side.

Egyptian security forces and Hamas gunmen started to close the border on Sunday after reportedly agreeing on restoring control on the frontier that Gaza militants blew open nearly two weeks ago amid a punishing Israeli blockade.

The West Bank-based Palestinian Authority (PA) condemned what it called "the attack by the Hamas militias" against Egyptian police.

The Islamist movement committed "an odious crime" and "treason" against the agreement signed in Cairo on the movement of Palestinians between Gaza and Egypt, it said in a statement received by AFP.

Since explosions brought down sections of the border barriers in Rafah early on January 23, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are estimated to have crossed back and forth into Egypt, most of them to stock up on supplies.

After several days of talks in Cairo last week, Hamas official Mahmud Zahar announced on Saturday that the Islamists had reached a deal with Egypt on restoring control over the frontier.

An official with the PA, however, told AFP that Egypt had not struck a border deal with Hamas but agreed "it is the Authority that has to take control of the border."

The PA and Hamas are at odds over a 2005 deal that Abbas reached with Israel when he still controlled Gaza, which the Islamists seized in June after expelling Abbas's Fatah forces in a week of bloodshed.

Under the 2005 agreement, the Rafah crossing was to be overseen by European Union monitors with cameras enabling round-the-clock surveillance by Israel of those passing through -- something Hamas rejects.

Source

[PalestineMyHeart 1,897]

It's been re-opened.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/951004.html

[Dr. A ♥ O 203]

Thx! It's getting crazy over there.

It's been re-opened.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/951004.html