Egypt seals off its borders with Gaza, preventing influx of Gazans into its territories, Rafah crossing to open

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Egypt, Hamas slowly closing Rafah border
Date: 03 / 02 / 2008 Time: 10:31

Gaza - Ma'an –

Egyptian security forces and Hamas-affiliated Palestinian police began to close the only remaining gap in the border wall between the Gaza Strip and Egypt, the so-called Salah Addin Gate, witnesses said on Sunday.

Egyptians who entered the Gaza Strip after the Wall was toppled in January are being sent back to Egypt after having their IDs checked. Palestinian Gaza Strip residents are also being sent back to the Strip after thirteen days of free movement across the border.

Hundreds of thousands of Gazans have been flooding to Egypt to shop for basic supplies after gaps had been made in the border walls by explosives and bulldozers.

Senior Hamas leader Mahmoud Al-Zahar, who was heading a Hamas delegation to the Egyptian capital, Cairo, said yesterday as he returned to the Strip that the borders would be closed again. However, he assured that the delegation received pledges from the Egyptian authorities that the Rafah crossing will soon be open on a daily basis.

Hamas has demanded that the Rafah crossing remain under Palestinian and Egyptian control only, without Israeli interference. They argue that the 2005 Agreement on Movement and Access (AMA) which placed international monitors at the crossing and gave Israel effective control over it, is now invalidated by events on the ground.

Egypt seals off its borders with Gaza, preventing influx of Gazans into its territories

Sunday February 03, 2008 15:33 by Rami Almeghari - IMEMC&Agencies rami at imemc dot org
The Egyptian border guards began Sunday sealing off the Gaza-Egypt border line that has seen influx of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians since January23, after Palestinian fighters knocked down the fence-off iron wall in Rafah, south of Gaza.

Eyewitnesses told IMEMC that a large number of Egyptian security guards have been deployed along the Egyptian side of the border and that an iron gate has been erected at the Salah Eldin main entrance, allowing passage of people in and out of Gaza, one by one.

On the Gaza side of the border, scores of Hamas-led police forces have been organizing movement of Palestinians and Egyptians who have stayed in both sides over the past several days, eyewitnesses said.

Senior Hamas leader in Gaza, Mahmoud Al-Zahar, told reporters yesterday that his ruling movement has been assured by Cairo that the Rafah crossing terminal will be soon reopened regularly.

The Hamas leader was speaking after holding talks in Cairo last week, over responsibility for the reopening of the Rafah terminal, in coordination with the Fatah party of President Mahmoud Abbas.

Hamas had earlier reiterated its rejection to return of European observers to the Rafah crossing terminal, arguing that the terminal should remain a sovereign Palestinian area, without any intervention from a third party.

The Rafah crossing terminal, the sole outlet to the outside world for Gaza's 1.5 million residents, has been closed since June of last year, when Israel imposed a closure on the Gaza Strip, right after Hamas took control over there.

Palestinian Persident Mahmoud Abbas, refused Hamas's position, saying that the Palestinians will accept reinstallation of European monitors within the 2005's agreement on movement and access (AMA), Washington brokered following the Israeli disengagement from the coastal region in September of that year.

The European Union's monitors, who left the crossing upon the Hamas's takeover of Gaza in June2007, voiced willingness to return back, once certain security arrangements are guaranteed.

During its takeover, the Islamist Hamas routed Fatah-loyal security services amidst a power struggle with the secular Fatah party of President Abbas, who embraces a peace strategy.

In January23, majority of the population in Gaza flooded into the Egyptian town of aL-Arish to buy essential supplies such as fuel, after Israel further tightened the siege it has been imposing since June2007.

In September of last year, Israel declared the coastal territory a 'hostile entity' and began in October a series of 'apparently punitive measures' involving fuel supplies cut, within what Israel says 'an attempt to stop homemade shells fire' from the Hamas-ruled Gaza onto southern Israel.

Hamas's leader, aL-Zahar, says Rafah crossing will remain Palestinian-Egyptian

Saturday February 02, 2008 16:07 by Rami aL-Meghari&Ghassan Bannoura ghassanb at imemc dot org

Senior Hamas leader, Mahmoud aL-Zahar, said on Saturday that his movement reiterates its determination that the Rafah crossing terminal will remain 'Palestinian-Egyptian with no intervention from a third party.

Al-Zahar, who returned back to Gaza today from Cairo along with a Hamas delegation, was quoted as saying " we have been pledged that Cairo would resolve the problem and the Rafah crossing would be reopened".

Regarding Gazans who have been stranded in the nearby aL-Arish town, aL-Zahar confirmed that the standoff will be resolved soon and that such stranded travelers will finally head for their destinations inside Egypt.

He pointed out that hundreds of patients will be able soon to leave for Cairo for treatment, after their names would have been scheduled.

Noting on the last week's Hamas-Fatah dialogue in Cairo, aL-Zahar made clear that Egypt demanded that such a dialogue be reinitiated without pre-conditions.

The Hamas leader stressed that the Hamas delegation apologized to Cairo for the borders breach in the Rafah town, on Gaza-Egypt border line, saying his movement will work with the Eygptian troops to reusme control over the borders

In the meantime, the Hamas movement organized on Saturday a 'women demonstration' on the Gaza-Egypt border line in southern Gaza to condemn the Israeli closure of the coastal territory and to reject the 2005's Rafah crossing agreement.

The Israeli supreme court of Justice ruled last Wednesday that the Israeli government's actions against Gaza, mainly cutting power and fuel supplies, remain in place because the court stated that such actions are meant to stop homemade shells fire onto Israel and make in Hamas's policy.

Last week, Fatah-Hamas delegations headed for Cairo in a bid to forge an agreement over responsibility for the Rafah crossing terminal, said to be the sole outlet to abroad for Gaza's 1.5 million residents.

Hamas wants the Rafah crossing reopened without the return of European observers, who were installed in 2005 within a U.S-brokered agreement, following the Israeli disengagement from Gaza in September2005.

Fatah party, which was routed by Hamas in June of last year, agrees to the return of the European monitors to the crossing, arguing that the agreement was internationally signed.

EU's foreign policy chief, Javeir Solana, is expected to arrive in the region this week in order to resolve the issue. The EU expressed earlier willingness to return to their work place, upon some security guarantees.

" It is unfair to differentiate between human beings, while tens of Palestinians used to be interrogated, arrested and even humiliated by the Israeli security personnel in the presence of the European observers", Hamas's spokesman in Gaza, Fawzi Barhoum, told IMEMC.

Barhoum said "we utterly reject return of such observers and the crossing should be a sovereign Palestinian area".

Since the agreement on movement and access (AMA) has been reached, the EU monitors used to control movement, using surveillance cameras, connected directly to Israeli security offices, about 15 kilometers away from the Gaza-Egypt border line.

Two weeks ago, hundreds of thousands of Gazans flooded to the nearby Egyptian town of Al-Arish, to buy essential supplies, amidst a crippling Israeli closure of Gaza, since last June, when the ruling Islamist Hamas movement took over the coastal region.

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