THE head of the Hamas government in Gaza on Tuesday urged Palestinians to respect Egypt’s security so that Cairo would keep open the Rafah border crossing.
Ismail Haniya welcomed Egypt’s decision to fully reopen the crossing last week, and warned Palestinians ‘to refrain from any breach of Egypt’s security’.
‘Don’t do anything that could compromise the reopening of the terminal,’ he said. ‘We assure our Egyptian brothers: “‘Your security is ours and your stability is ours.”’
Haniya made the comments at the inauguration in Gaza City of a monument to nine Turkish activists who were killed last year during an Israeli raid on a flotilla of aid ships attempting to break the illegal naval blockade on Gaza.
Egypt first announced plans to open Rafah on a permanent basis at the end of April, a day after Hamas reached a surprise reconciliation deal with its Fatah rivals, who control the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority.
The Rafah crossing has remained largely shut since June 2006, when Israel imposed a tight blockade on the territory after militants snatched Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who is still being held.
Israel’s blockade was tightened a year later when Hamas took control of the territory, ousting forces loyal to the Western-backed Palestinian Authority.
Israel took steps to ease the measure last summer following international pressure after the raid that killed the nine Turkish activists.
It has strongly criticised Egypt’s decision to reopen Rafah, with ministers warning that ‘terror groups’ would now be able to freely transport money, weapons and people across the border.
Egypt had actively supported Israel’s blockade on Gaza, despite harsh regional criticism, but the military regime that took control after street protests ousted President Husni Mubarak in February quickly signalled a change in policy.
President Mahmud Abbas was in Egypt on Monday for talks with the country’s de facto head of state on efforts to seek UN recognition for a Palestinian state, a military source said.
Abbas briefed Field Marshall Hussein Tantawi – who heads the military council in power since Mubarak was ousted in February – on his recent trip to Doha.
At a meeting of an Arab monitoring committee chaired by Qatar, the Arab League said in a statement it ‘supports the appeal to the UN asking that Palestine, within the 1967 borders, becomes a full-fledged state; of the international organisation.
The two also discussed an Egyptian-sponsored reconciliation deal that put an end to the bitter division between Abbas’s Fatah movement and the Islamist Hamas group and paves the way for a new government and elections within a year.
During the talks, the Palestinian president thanked Tantawi for opening the Rafah crossing, the only border with Gaza that bypasses Israel, in a bid to ease the blockade on the strip.
The decision to permanently reopen the Rafah crossing came more than three months after the former Egyptian president resigned under pressure following 18 days of massive street protests against his rule.
The opening of Rafah on May 28, the only official border crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt, has created a lifeline for Palestinians living in Gaza, but some, mostly refugees, will still be restricted to their localities because they lack identification papers.
Palestinians were allowed to pass freely from Gaza into Egypt through Rafah for the first time in four years. The decision marked a huge shift in Egyptian foreign policy, introduced after Mubarak’s fall, and provides a critical valve for the 1.6 million people trapped within Gaza’s borders since June 2007.
The crossing was partially opened in May last year after the deaths of international activists on board a flotilla attempting to break the siege. It operated a five-day week, from noon until 4pm, but was open only to foreign passport holders, Palestinians with foreign visas and medical patients.
The restrictions had made it incredibly difficult for Palestinians to enter Egypt, even on genuine medical grounds. From April 2011 to date, around 2,100 Palestinians have been denied entry into Egypt for unspecified reasons, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
Under the new rules, all women, minors and any man under 18 and over 40 will be able to pass freely without a visa six days a week from 9am until 4pm.
Mohamed Matar, 39, a shopkeeper from Rafah, who was among the thousands of people lining up at the crossing on May 28 hoping to leave Gaza, said: ‘I won’t be 40 until October but I’m still going to try. My Mum is in Egypt and very sick with Alzheimer’s. She is 80 years old and none of her sons are with her. We are all here in Gaza.
‘When I speak to her on the phone she sounds very tired and weak. I’m afraid she will die. If I get through the border tomorrow, at least I can sit with her for a week so that she recognises me again.’
Not all Palestinians are as optimistic. For men aged 18-40, the reopening makes little difference.
Unless they can provide proof of having a place at university abroad or a foreign visa, they will remain stuck in the Gaza Strip.
There are also hundreds of Palestinians in Gaza, mostly refugees, without identification documents who cannot leave.
While it officially withdrew from the Gaza Strip in 2005, Israel retains control of its maritime, air and most of its land borders.
It also retains control of its population registry, including the issuance of Palestinian ID numbers without which it is impossible to travel.
Sana Easa, 39, has not seen her family in Cairo since she moved to Gaza to marry her husband Salah 12 years ago. Both need medical treatment unavailable in Gaza’s hospitals, but even with the new policy at Rafah, they are stuck.
Sana is a Palestinian but was born in Cairo and lived there most of her life. Her parents left Gaza as refugees in 1967. Her Egyptian passport expired in April 2004 but in order to renew it, she must go to Cairo in person. She is still waiting for the Palestinian ID number she applied for 12 years ago.
‘The last time I tried to cross Rafah with my husband was in May 2010’ she says. ‘We got to the Palestinian border at 4am and reached the Egyptian side at 11pm.
‘The Egyptian officials told my husband he and my son could pass through but they told me that because I have expired Egyptian travel documents and I don’t have a Palestinian ID I had to turn back.
‘At 1am we decided we would come home together. My husband refuses to go to Egypt for the operation alone. He will be a patient and will need help. It was a disaster. This new opening means nothing to me because I know my case.’
The border opened at 10am local time on May 28 and within 90 minutes 200 Palestinians had crossed into Egypt. Travellers coming in the opposite direction spoke of huge changes on the Egyptian side of the border.
