Friday, February 08, 2008

In abrupt turnaround, Egypt threatens anyone breaching Gaza border

An angry Egyptian foreign minister Ahmed Abul Gheit said Thursday, Feb. 7: “Anyone who breaches the border will have their legs broken.” Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians began swarming into Egyptian Sinai two weeks ago after Hamas smashed the border fences.

Abu Gheit said they had been allowed to flood across for humanitarians only. He reproached Hamas for firing rockets into Israel - thereby provoking the Israel blockade of Gaza - as “a laughable caricature.” Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhum advised the Egyptian minister to stop making threats. In Cairo, defense minister Mohammed Tantawi backed Abu Gheit by saying no one was allowed to violate national security and Egypt has an arsenal “that conforms with the most modern technology in the world."

DEBKAfile discloses that President Hosni Mubarak decided to crack down on the Hamas-led mass Palestinian invasion of Sinai after Saudi King Abdullah, a former Hamas patron, warned that the Palestinian fundamentalists were on a wild rampage which unchecked could provoke destabilizing radical violence against Arab regimes.

No comments: