Hamas delegation from Gaza, headed by Mahmoud Al-Zahar, visits Cairo for border talks

Delegation from Gaza to visit Cairo for border talks

[ 30/01/2008 - 11:07 AM ]

GAZA, (PIC)--

A delegation from Hamas left on Wednesday for Egypt to hold talks with the Egyptian leadership about the mechanisms to manage the Rafah border crossing and end the siege imposed on the Gaza Strip.

The delegation which includes MP Dr. Mahmoud Al-Zahar, MP Saeed Seyam and Jamal Abu Hashim will join in Egypt with a delegation from Hamas leaders in exile.

Ahmed Yousuf, the political advisor to premier Ismail Haniya stated that the meetings in Egypt will discuss the possibility of reaching understandings about the entry and exit of Palestinians to and from Gaza, expecting that the coming days will be witnessing the beginning of sorting out things between Fatah and Hamas.

In another related context, the Palestinians who have entry visas to other countries and now stranded in the Sinai Peninsula intended to go on hunger strike as of Wednesday if the Egyptian authorities did not respond to their demand and allowed them to go to their resident countries.

About 1500 Palestinians, in the Sinai Peninsula, including students and employees having expired visas along with patients with chronic diseases, are now temporarily residing amid harsh living conditions in two mosques belonging to the people of Al-Arish city.

For his part, Mohamed Al-Farawi, the spokesman for the stranded students and employees appealed to the Egyptian authorities to allow them to stay and move in Egypt until they finish processing their travel papers.

In a press release, Dr. Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas spokesman, underscored that all the attempts to override and thwart the vision of Hamas for arranging the Rafah border crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt will be doomed to failure.

Dr. Abu Zuhri pointed out that there are pressures being made by European, American, Israeli and PA parties on Egypt in order to return to the previous crossings agreement which gives Israel the right to exercise what it likes at the Rafah crossing, adding that the crossing in the past was opened once every few months.

The spokesman stressed the need to operate the Rafah crossing according to new arrangements serving the higher interests of the Palestinian people without interference of any foreign forces, whether European or American.

Regarding the last statements of Salam Fayyad that Hamas should not interfere in the issue of the Rafah crossing, the spokesman said that Fayyad represents the Israeli occupation and not the Palestinian people, describing him as America's first man.

The spokesman called on Arab and Islamic states and governments not to receive Fayyad in their countries because he is a representative of the Israeli occupation.

For his part, Mushir Al-Masri, the secretary-general of Hamas parliamentary bloc, charged in a press statement to the Quds Press that Fayyad was seeking to return the Israeli occupation to the Rafah crossing and foil the efforts to make it a purely Palestinian-Egyptian crossing.

Masri highlighted that Hamas would not allow the suffering of the Palestinian people or the Israeli siege to continue, calling on the unconstitutional government of Ramallah to exculpate themselves from contributing to the siege on the Gaza Strip.

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