Sunday, February 03, 2008

Egypt to Close Gaza Border on Sunday

Hana Levi Julian


(IsraelNN.com) Egyptian officials warned the Hamas terrorist organization in talks Saturday that it will re-close its border with Gaza on Sunday.

Senior Hamas official Mahmoud Zahar, considered to be one of the architects of the Hamas takeover of Gaza last June, said the terrorists would not interfere. "Egypt's message was very clear that Sunday should be the day to put an end to this scene," he told reporters at the border town of Rafiah. He added that no weapons would be allowed at the border, nor would violence or abusive language toward Egyptian police be tolerated.

Returning to Gaza after the talks in Cairo, Zahar told reporters that Egypt was willing to allow thousands of Palestinian Authority Arabs to travel on to third countries for which they have visas or residency permits. The would-be travelers are currently stuck in the Egyptian town of El Arish awaiting Egyptian approval to continue their journeys.

Hamas operatives blew up the border fence more than a week ago, enabling hundreds of thousands of Palestinian Authority Arabs to flood into Egypt from Gaza. At first Cairo welcomed the visitors, but after Rafiah store shelves were emptied and it became clear that many Gaza residents planned to remain in the country as refugees, Egyptian officials reversed their stand.

Attempts last week by Egyptian soldiers to limit, if not entirely block the flood failed. Metal spikes and other measures taken by Egyptian soldiers to restore the border were hauled away by Hamas terrorists or swept away by Hamas-driven bulldozers.

As late as Friday, deposed PA Prime Minister and Hamas head Ismail Haniyeh said he would not allow the border to be resealed. "The Palestinian people have many options," he said cryptically in an interview with the Hamas daily Palestine newspaper.

However, Zahar appeared to contradict Haniyeh's stance in an interview on Al-Jazeera satellite TV, saying "We will work to close the border between us and Egypt," said Zahar. "We will restore control over this border, in cooperation with Egypt and gradually."

The exact nature of the closure and the pace at which it would take place was unclear, as was the level of participation in future border control Egypt would allow Hamas, if any.

Egypt and Israel agreed last week to allow Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah-led troops to resume control of the border under the supervision of European Union observers and a video link monitored by Israeli security agents.
The arrangement was originally agreed upon by all parties and implemented in late 2005. Egypt shut down its side of the Rafiah crossing terminal, however, when Hamas terrorists ousted Abbas's forces and seized control of Gaza in June 2006.

EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana is expected to arrive in Egypt for talks on Sunday.

Hamas demands to be given control over the Gaza side of the terminal have been ignored and the EU has said it would return its observers to the crossing only under the conditions of the 2005 agreement, according to Reuters.
Hamas Terrorists Entered Egypt with Visitors
Two brothers from Gaza were arrested Saturday in the Sinai Peninsula. The two, Hani and Rami Hamdan, were caught by Egyptian security forces while carrying bombs in a village not far from Rafiah.

Egyptian officials said the two were planning to carry out a terrorist attack in a popular tourist destination along the southern coast of Sinai.

Egyptian security agents are continuing to search for four Gaza terrorists in response to intelligence reports the cell is planning an attack on Sinai tourist destinations. Officials said the search began following the arrest last week of 15 armed Gaza Arabs, 12 of them Hamas terrorists, who had infiltrated Sinai with weapons, bombs, and ammunition.

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