Last update - 00:00 11/07/2007
Egypt deploys along Gaza Strip border fearing militant breakout
By Amos Harel and Avi Issacharoff, Haaretz Correspondent
Fears that Palestinian militants may storm the Gaza-Egypt border have prompted Egyptian authorities to begin deploying large police forces along the joint border, security sources said on Wednesday.
The deployment began late on Tuesday, and the sources said additional Egyptian security forces had already taken up positions along the border north of the Rafah crossing into the Gaza Strip, in addition to the existing 750 border police troops stationed there.
A security source said that a demonstration on Tuesday staged by dozens of Palestinians demanding the crossing be opened had increased the Egyptian government's fears it could be stormed or parts of the cement wall torn down.
following the Palestinian faction Hamas' violent takeover of the coastal territory last month.
Palestinian authorities technically control the crossing, but it can be blocked by Israel. Rafah was closed on June 9 and has remained closed since Hamas Islamist forces took over the Gaza Strip days later. Thousands of Palestinians have been stranded in Egypt by the crossing's closure.
Last summer, Hamas gunmen blew a six-meter hole in the Gaza-Egypt border wall, allowing nearly 1,000 stranded Palestinians to cross home during a border closure.
Meanwhile, on Tuesday Palestinian militants fired at least 11 mortar shells toward Israel from the Gaza Strip. No one was injured, but two structures near the Kerem Shalom border crossing sustained damage, and the Israel Defense Forces closed the crossing down. An anti-tank missile was also fired at IDF troops on the Gaza border, but no one was hurt.
Hamas targeted the crossing apparently because of Israel's intention to make it the main entry point into Gaza. The militant group, which currently controls the coastal strip after a violent takeover last month, opposes the move to make Kerem Shalom a main crossing because it believes this would give Israel full control over entry and exit from Gaza.
Israel had meant to open the crossing in the south of the strip Wednesday to allow some 5,000 Palestinians stranded in Egypt after Hamas' coup to return to their homes in Gaza. Egypt and Israel agreed on the move in the summit at Sharm el-Sheikh two weeks ago.
Palestinian sources said Hamas was opposed to opening Kerem Shalom under Egyptian and Israeli auspices because it feared this would constitute a precedent which Israel could exploit. The former Palestinian prime minister, Hamas' Ismail Haniyeh, said he would only agree to opening the Rafah crossing, where inspection is conducted by Egyptian security forces.
Major General Yosef Mishlav, the coordinator of government activities in the territories, told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that Hamas was deliberately trying to thwart humanitarian relief efforts for Gaza.
He added that since Hamas' coup, Israel has let 1,500 trucks through Kerem Shalom, carrying some 40,000 tons of goods.
MK Ran Cohen from the left-wing Meretz party, who is a member of the committee, called for allowing Palestinian workers from the West Bank to enter Israel. Mishlav supported the proposal; he said that since 1967, security forces have encountered only two cases of Palestinian workers who were involved in terrorist attacks inside Israel.
The IDF continued its activity in the West Bank Tuesday, as an undercover elite unit arrested the head of Fatah's armed wing in Nablus overnight. Security forces believe that the man, Nidal Fukha, was involved in shooting attacks in the area, as well as attempts to send suicide bombers into Israel.