Hamas warns of human catastrophe, suggests Egyptian-Palestinian control on Rafah

The Hamas Movement on Monday demanded the immediate operation of the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt before all trapped Palestinians, warning of a human catastrophe if the closure continued.

In a press release, Hamas called for converting the Rafah terminal into an Egyptian-Palestinian crossing with no European supervision over movement of "our citizens".

It also renewed refusal of using Israeli-controlled Karm Abu Salem crossing, strongly condemning the unconstitutional "emergency" government of Salam Fayyad for manipulating the suffering of the stranded Palestinians.

The Movement asserted that all had the right to return home and no discrimination according to political affiliation should be exercised.

Warning of a human tragedy if the closure persisted, Hamas urged all Arab parties to immediately step in and to end "this crime against our people".

Hamas accused the Fayyad government of exploiting the suffering of those people for "cheap political gains".

The Movement held PA chief Mahmoud Abbas responsible for the suffering of the 6,000 trapped Palestinians, pointing to his request to the concerned parties not to open the Rafah terminal.

Hamas called for a sit-in on Tuesday morning at the Palestinian side of the Rafah border terminal to denounce its closure and to refuse using Karm Abu Salam in its place, which was approved by the Fayyad government in conformity with Israeli wishes.

For its part, the Islamic Jihad Movement accused the Fayyad government of supporting "Zionist schemes" through agreeing to open Karm Abu Salam crossing instead of Rafah.

Such a step would endorse occupation's policy targeting to control all Palestinian affairs, Islamic Jihad said, and called on Egypt to refuse such a step and to find a solution to the Rafah terminal away from occupation's interference.

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