Israel does not plan to block Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas from assuming control of Gaza's border crossing with Egypt if he reaches an agreement to do so with Cairo, Israeli officials said yesterday.
Abbas has won US, European and Arab backing for taking control of Gaza's border crossing with Egypt at Rafah, though it is unclear how he and his forces would do so given Hamas' control of Gaza.
The Rafah border crossing with Egypt has largely been closed since June after Hamas seized control of the territory and the EU pulled its monitors out of the Gaza Strip. The EU said on Monday it would consider returning them to the crossing.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit endorsed Abbas' proposal to deploy his own, Western-trained forces at the crossing along with the EU monitors, though the presence of neither force was imminent, given Hamas's command on the ground.
Hamas spokesman Sami Abu-Zuhri reacted angrily to Cairo's endorsement of Abbas's proposal, calling it an "Israeli-led international conspiracy with the participation of some regional parties," which would exclude them from controlling the border.
"We tell all parties that we will not allow the return of old conditions at the crossing," Abu-Zuhri said.
Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians poured into Egypt after Hamas militants blew up the border wall to allow the territory's 1.5 million people to stock up on food in short supply due to a blockade, which Israel said was tightened in response to cross border rocket attacks.
Hamas fighters cooperated with Egyptian forces on Monday to patch up the frontier barrier.
Gaza's border crossings have become the main battleground in a larger factional power struggle pitting Hamas against Abbas, whose authority has been limited to the Israeli-occupied West Bank, home to 2.5 million Palestinians.
"Of course they should give the border to Abbas. But where is he?" asked 28-year-old school teacher Ahmed Zaqtan as he returned to Gaza from the Egyptian side on Monday.
Before Hamas's takeover, EU monitors had been posted at Rafah under a deal with Egypt and Israel in 2005 that aimed to allay the Jewish state's concerns about arms and fighters coming into Gaza when it pulled out its own troops and settlers.
In a statement on Monday, EU foreign ministers said the bloc was "ready to consider resuming its monitoring mission in Rafah" under that deal -- provided Abbas, Egypt and Israel all approve.
At Rafah, traffic was back down to a trickle, partly due to Egypt's efforts to stem the flow of goods to the border area.
Egyptian and Hamas forces used concrete and fencing to close two gaps. Two other breaches in the frontier remain open, an entry and an exit, under joint Hamas and Egyptian guard.
A Hamas source said those openings could be closed today provided talks in Cairo with Egyptian officials "prove positive" for Hamas by giving it a say on the border in future.
Salam Fayyad, prime minister of Abbas' West Bank-based government, countered that there was "no need for new arrangements" and cautioned Hamas against "interfering in a way that could obstruct the reopening of the border crossings".
Both Hamas leaders and Abbas are expected in Cairo today. Egypt does not want to be seen as aiding the Israeli blockade.
Israel's Foreign Ministry held preliminary talks over the weekend with members of the EU mission. While Israeli officials were considering Abbas's proposal for taking over the crossings, including Rafah, they doubted his forces were strong enough.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice offered support on Monday Abbas to deploy some kind of security presence along the Gaza Strip's chaotic border with Egypt.
"We do support ... the concept of a Palestinian Authority presence to begin to introduce some order to that border," Rice told reporters.
"There would be many details that would have to be worked out, and I can't comment on any specific detail because this is obviously a very complex ... would be a very complex operation in itself," she said.
"But we've said that in concept it should be supported and that parties should look to see if that might be one way to handle the situation," she added during a press conference with Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith.
THE ‘MONSTER’: The Philippines on Saturday sent a vessel to confront a 12,000-tonne Chinese ship that had entered its exclusive economic zone The Philippines yesterday said it deployed a coast guard ship to challenge Chinese patrol boats attempting to “alter the existing status quo” of the disputed South China Sea. Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Commodore Jay Tarriela said Chinese patrol ships had this year come as close as 60 nautical miles (111km) west of the main Philippine island of Luzon. “Their goal is to normalize such deployments, and if these actions go unnoticed and unchallenged, it will enable them to alter the existing status quo,” he said in a statement. He later told reporters that Manila had deployed a coast guard ship to the area
RISING TENSIONS: The nations’ three leaders discussed China’s ‘dangerous and unlawful behavior in the South China Sea,’ and agreed on the importance of continued coordination Japan, the Philippines and the US vowed to further deepen cooperation under a trilateral arrangement in the face of rising tensions in Asia’s waters, the three nations said following a call among their leaders. Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and outgoing US President Joe Biden met via videoconference on Monday morning. Marcos’ communications office said the leaders “agreed to enhance and deepen economic, maritime and technology cooperation.” The call followed a first-of-its-kind summit meeting of Marcos, Biden and then-Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida in Washington in April last year that led to a vow to uphold international
US president-elect Donald Trump is not typically known for his calm or reserve, but in a craftsman’s workshop in rural China he sits in divine contemplation. Cross-legged with his eyes half-closed in a pose evoking the Buddha, this porcelain version of the divisive US leader-in-waiting is the work of designer and sculptor Hong Jinshi (洪金世). The Zen-like figures — which Hong sells for between 999 and 20,000 yuan (US$136 to US$2,728) depending on their size — first went viral in 2021 on the e-commerce platform Taobao, attracting national headlines. Ahead of the real-estate magnate’s inauguration for a second term on Monday next week,
‘PLAINLY ERRONEOUS’: The justice department appealed a Trump-appointed judge’s blocking of the release of a report into election interference by the incoming president US Special Counsel Jack Smith, who led the federal cases against US president-elect Donald Trump on charges of trying to overturn his 2020 election defeat and mishandling of classified documents, has resigned after submitting his investigative report on Trump, an expected move that came amid legal wrangling over how much of that document can be made public in the days ahead. The US Department of Justice disclosed Smith’s departure in a footnote of a court filing on Saturday, saying he had resigned one day earlier. The resignation, 10 days before Trump is inaugurated, follows the conclusion of two unsuccessful criminal prosecutions
RSS