RAFAH, Gaza Strip, 22 January 2005 — A bus-load of Palestinians crossed the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the southern Gaza Strip yesterday after the terminal was reopened for the first time in six weeks, witnesses said. Several thousand Palestinians have been stuck on the Egyptian side of the border which was closed after a Dec. 12 attack by Palestinian militants which claimed the lives of five Israeli soldiers.
The reopening of the crossing was approved by Israeli security officials after a meeting with their Palestinian counterparts.
Meanwhile, Israeli armored cars rolled into the West Bank town of Ramallah overnight Thursday, the first such incursion for several months, witnesses and Palestinian security sources said. Twenty armored cars and jeeps arrived from the neighboring Jewish settlements of Beit El and Psagot.
Troops surrounded a building in the town centre then used explosives to force an entry before mounting a search, the sources said. At the same time, 10 other military vehicles took up positions around the headquarters of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, the first instance of such military action since he took power following the death Yasser Arafat last November.
According to PA official sources, Abbas was scheduled to hold a new round of truce talks with leaders of the radical Islamist Hamas movement and its smaller rival Islamic Jihad in Gaza last night, official sources said. Abbas will first meet with representatives from Jihad and then from Hamas.
