Post by Steve Gardner on Jan 2, 2008 23:16:33 GMT
...Israeli checkpoint
Source: Internation Herald Tribune
By Isabel Kershner
Published: January 2, 2008
JERUSALEM: Egypt allowed 2,000 Palestinian pilgrims who had been stranded for days in the Egyptian Sinai to cross back into the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, a decision that is expected to fuel Israeli tensions with Cairo over what Israel sees as lax security along the Gaza-Egypt border.
The Hamas rulers of Gaza celebrated the return of the pilgrims via the Rafah border crossing as a victory. The crossing, on Gaza's border with Egypt, has been officially closed since Hamas took over the strip in June, routing Fatah forces there.
The Palestinians had traveled to Saudi Arabia for the annual Muslim pilgrimage under the aegis of Hamas. Israel had demanded that they return via an Israeli-controlled crossing, Kerem Shalom, where they could undergo Israeli security checks before re-entering Gaza. Hamas had refused to send the pilgrims back through Kerem Shalom, saying that its supporters could be arrested by Israel.
Israeli officials suspect that some of the pilgrims brought back large sums of money and other contraband for Hamas, the Islamic group that Israel, like the United States and the European Union, defines as a terrorist organization.
An Israeli government official said: "If people are returning to Gaza without going through the required security procedures, then that would be contrary to the understandings reached." The official was speaking on condition of anonymity for reasons of diplomacy.
Another Israeli official said that the subject had been raised in a Dec. 26 meeting between the Israeli defense minister, Ehud Barak, and President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt in the Sinai resort of Sharm el Sheik. There it was decided that the pilgrims would return via Kerem Shalom, the official said Wednesday, adding: "There is likely some damage to security here."
The Barak-Mubarak meeting took place two days after the Israeli foreign minister, Tzipi Livni, told an Israeli parliamentary committee that the Egyptian effort to secure the border with Gaza was "terrible, problematic and damages the ability to make progress in the peace process."
Israeli security officials estimate that 80 tons of explosives have been smuggled into Gaza through tunnels under the Egyptian border since June.
Egyptian officials have furiously rejected the criticism and attacked efforts in the U.S. Congress to make part of U.S. military aid to Egypt conditional on its taking concrete steps to improve the situation.
In Gaza on Wednesday, the Hamas-run Al Aksa radio and television greeted the returning pilgrims with Palestinian wedding songs. Ismail Haniya, the Hamas leader in Gaza, praised Egypt, saying it had not surrendered to blackmail.
Um Muhammad Bayed, 45, a Hamas supporter who was among the returning pilgrims, said she had spent a day and a half stranded on a boat off the southern Sinai coast and three days in the north Sinai town of El Arish before reaching Gaza.
"The toughest thing was the uncertainty - not knowing when we were going to make it through," Bayed said in a telephone interview shortly after crossing the border.
Many of the returning Palestinians complained of harsh conditions and bitter cold in Sinai. Egypt had put them up in a sports stadium and provided food and medicine, the returnees said. But two of the pilgrims, both women, died of heart attacks during the wait in the desert town.
The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah, was in Cairo to meet with Mubarak on Wednesday. Palestinians in Gaza attributed the timing of the pilgrims' return to an Egyptian desire for Abbas to receive some of the credit.
Palestinian officials said the Abbas-Mubarak meeting would focus on Israeli settlement building and coordinating positions for President George W. Bush's visit to the region, scheduled to start Jan. 9. But they said that Abbas, as the leader of all the Palestinians, would also press for the issue of the stranded pilgrims to be resolved.
In reality, though, the whole episode of the Hamas-sponsored pilgrimage from Gaza has been an embarrassing one for Abbas. The Abbas-led Authority, which governs from the West Bank, had organized its own official quota of Gaza pilgrims, who were to travel to Saudi Arabia and back through Israel.
When the 2,000 left unexpectedly through Rafah, under Hamas auspices and with Egyptian and Saudi cooperation, Palestinian officials in the West Bank said they felt they had been "stabbed in the back."
Ayman Shaheen, a political analyst at Al Azhar University in Gaza, which is affiliated with Fatah, tried to put a positive spin on the Wednesday events. He said that by delaying the pilgrims' return by several days, "Egypt has succeeded in sending a message to Hamas that the crossing is not under Hamas control."
After the reports of the pilgrims' suffering in El Arish, he said, Egypt was forced by popular pressure to allow them to cross into Gaza.
Six Palestinian militants were killed in Israeli ground and air strikes before dawn Wednesday in an area of Gaza close to the border fence, Palestinian medical officials and the Israeli Army said. An army spokeswoman said that the Palestinians had fired guns and antitank missiles at Israeli forces on a routine operation against rocket launchers in the area.
Hamas said in a statement that four of the dead were members of its armed wing and that two were members of the Popular Resistance Committees.
Taghreed El-Khodary contributed reporting from Gaza City.
Source: Internation Herald Tribune
By Isabel Kershner
Published: January 2, 2008
JERUSALEM: Egypt allowed 2,000 Palestinian pilgrims who had been stranded for days in the Egyptian Sinai to cross back into the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, a decision that is expected to fuel Israeli tensions with Cairo over what Israel sees as lax security along the Gaza-Egypt border.
The Hamas rulers of Gaza celebrated the return of the pilgrims via the Rafah border crossing as a victory. The crossing, on Gaza's border with Egypt, has been officially closed since Hamas took over the strip in June, routing Fatah forces there.
The Palestinians had traveled to Saudi Arabia for the annual Muslim pilgrimage under the aegis of Hamas. Israel had demanded that they return via an Israeli-controlled crossing, Kerem Shalom, where they could undergo Israeli security checks before re-entering Gaza. Hamas had refused to send the pilgrims back through Kerem Shalom, saying that its supporters could be arrested by Israel.
Israeli officials suspect that some of the pilgrims brought back large sums of money and other contraband for Hamas, the Islamic group that Israel, like the United States and the European Union, defines as a terrorist organization.
An Israeli government official said: "If people are returning to Gaza without going through the required security procedures, then that would be contrary to the understandings reached." The official was speaking on condition of anonymity for reasons of diplomacy.
Another Israeli official said that the subject had been raised in a Dec. 26 meeting between the Israeli defense minister, Ehud Barak, and President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt in the Sinai resort of Sharm el Sheik. There it was decided that the pilgrims would return via Kerem Shalom, the official said Wednesday, adding: "There is likely some damage to security here."
The Barak-Mubarak meeting took place two days after the Israeli foreign minister, Tzipi Livni, told an Israeli parliamentary committee that the Egyptian effort to secure the border with Gaza was "terrible, problematic and damages the ability to make progress in the peace process."
Israeli security officials estimate that 80 tons of explosives have been smuggled into Gaza through tunnels under the Egyptian border since June.
Egyptian officials have furiously rejected the criticism and attacked efforts in the U.S. Congress to make part of U.S. military aid to Egypt conditional on its taking concrete steps to improve the situation.
In Gaza on Wednesday, the Hamas-run Al Aksa radio and television greeted the returning pilgrims with Palestinian wedding songs. Ismail Haniya, the Hamas leader in Gaza, praised Egypt, saying it had not surrendered to blackmail.
Um Muhammad Bayed, 45, a Hamas supporter who was among the returning pilgrims, said she had spent a day and a half stranded on a boat off the southern Sinai coast and three days in the north Sinai town of El Arish before reaching Gaza.
"The toughest thing was the uncertainty - not knowing when we were going to make it through," Bayed said in a telephone interview shortly after crossing the border.
Many of the returning Palestinians complained of harsh conditions and bitter cold in Sinai. Egypt had put them up in a sports stadium and provided food and medicine, the returnees said. But two of the pilgrims, both women, died of heart attacks during the wait in the desert town.
The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah, was in Cairo to meet with Mubarak on Wednesday. Palestinians in Gaza attributed the timing of the pilgrims' return to an Egyptian desire for Abbas to receive some of the credit.
Palestinian officials said the Abbas-Mubarak meeting would focus on Israeli settlement building and coordinating positions for President George W. Bush's visit to the region, scheduled to start Jan. 9. But they said that Abbas, as the leader of all the Palestinians, would also press for the issue of the stranded pilgrims to be resolved.
In reality, though, the whole episode of the Hamas-sponsored pilgrimage from Gaza has been an embarrassing one for Abbas. The Abbas-led Authority, which governs from the West Bank, had organized its own official quota of Gaza pilgrims, who were to travel to Saudi Arabia and back through Israel.
When the 2,000 left unexpectedly through Rafah, under Hamas auspices and with Egyptian and Saudi cooperation, Palestinian officials in the West Bank said they felt they had been "stabbed in the back."
Ayman Shaheen, a political analyst at Al Azhar University in Gaza, which is affiliated with Fatah, tried to put a positive spin on the Wednesday events. He said that by delaying the pilgrims' return by several days, "Egypt has succeeded in sending a message to Hamas that the crossing is not under Hamas control."
After the reports of the pilgrims' suffering in El Arish, he said, Egypt was forced by popular pressure to allow them to cross into Gaza.
Six Palestinian militants were killed in Israeli ground and air strikes before dawn Wednesday in an area of Gaza close to the border fence, Palestinian medical officials and the Israeli Army said. An army spokeswoman said that the Palestinians had fired guns and antitank missiles at Israeli forces on a routine operation against rocket launchers in the area.
Hamas said in a statement that four of the dead were members of its armed wing and that two were members of the Popular Resistance Committees.
Taghreed El-Khodary contributed reporting from Gaza City.
