Rafah Crossing: Will it open today? Will the Egyptians take a role? 

Date: 24 / 06 / 2007 Time: 12:43

Gaza - Ma'an - 

The telephone at Ma'an's Gaza office has not stopped ringing as callers demand an answer to one single question: will the Rafah crossing, located between the southern Gaza Strip and Egypt, be open today?

Ma'an News Agency attempted to call officials in order to verify the reports that Rafah Crossing would be open at 8am on Sunday. There was no confirmation or denial of the news.

Callers have been demanding that Ma'an sends them any news the agency receives on the subject as an SMS to their mobile phones.

An Egyptian role?

For its part, the Hamas movement called anew on the Egyptians to play a role in reopening the crossing after the European monitors left due to the security situation.

Hamas spokesperson Fawzi Barhoum told Ma'an, "We consider the crossings agreement to be over after the European monitors left, and Hamas still insists that Egypt should play a role in managing the crossing."

Barhoum also disagreed with the suggestion that the Sharm Al-Shaikh summit might result in the Gaza crossings being opened.

The spokesman said: "We do not count on that meeting at all. We do not expect [Fatah head, Palestinian President] Abbas to demand opening the crossings or pose that issue. We expect him to ask for more pressures on the unity government in the Gaza Strip."

The Hamas spokesman added that he believed that the summit would ratify normalization with the Israeli occupation. In response, he said, "We need a united Arab and Islamic position supportive of the Palestinian people and their cause in response to the European and US support of Israel."

Political bargaining

The Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip cannot be pressured into making political concessions by depriving them of their daily bread, Barhoum warned.

He added that 75% of the 1.5 million residents of the Gaza Strip are refugees who are dependent on the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) and other international organizations. Furthermore, 25,000 public sector employees in the Gaza Strip need a minimum of $20 million and a maximum of $60 million in wages, Barhoum said. Hamas would do its best to provide that money through contacting more and more international organizations, Barhoum said. The remaining Gazans would rely on their own income through their work as merchants and businessmen, he said.

Barhoum concluded that Hamas is awaiting a final decision from President Mahmoud Abbas regarding how he intends to deal with the Gaza Strip and the Hamas leadership there.

In a different regard, the Hamas spokesman held the Fatah strongman Muhammad Dahlan responsible for frustrating the efforts to free the captured BBC reporter, Alan Johnston, who has been held captive in the Gaza Strip since mid-March. The spokesman said that Dahlan demanded of Johnston’s captors that they avoid giving Hamas the honor of being behind his release.

 

---

Fair Use Notice

This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.