RAFAH, Egypt, 28 January 2008 — Egyptian forces yesterday moved to close their breached border with the Gaza Strip by stopping vehicle traffic and further tightening their security cordon around the small frontier town of Rafah in effort to contain Palestinians crossing freely into Egypt for the fifth day in a row.
One of the gaps carved into the border wall had been blocked with piles of sand and border police carrying electric cattle prods stopped cars with Palestinian plates from entering Egypt at other openings and Egyptians cars from crossing into Gaza. They were joined by Hamas-affiliated security forces who encouraged Gazan motorists to return to the Palestinian territories. Pedestrians, however, continued to move back and forth freely, buying goods.
“Egypt will take necessary actions and measures to control the border in Gaza soon,” said Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit, following a meeting in Cairo with Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad.
Many stores were still open and people carried their purchases through the muddy streets of the divided border town of Rafah, despite a chill drizzle. Merchants said some stores only closed because they had run out of inventory.
Outside Rafah, police tightened their cordon and increased their checkpoints to stop Palestinians from entering the rest of Egypt and in the nearby town of El-Arish, security forces approached Palestinians on the streets and ordered them home. Palestinians who had managed to sneak into El-Arish said that people would now no longer sell them anything or give them a place to stay the night, apparently under orders from security.
Leaders in the region are scrabbling to decide what to do about last Wednesday’s dramatic opening of the border between Egypt and Gaza and subsequent flood of Palestinians out of their besieged territory to buy food, fuel and consumer products.
Arab foreign ministers were set to meet in Cairo last evening to discuss the matter, while it was the centerpiece of talks between Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas as well. Following a meeting with Fayyad, Aboul Gheit said Egypt supported the international brokered agreement that involved a border jointly supervised by the Israelis, Palestinian authorities and European monitors — something Hamas vehemently rejects.
“We need to reach a new agreement for a Palestinian-Egyptian border crossing through bilateral meetings between Hamas, Fatah and Egypt,” Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said yesterday.
