Last update - 00:00 29/07/2007
Group of 101 Gazans stranded in Egypt returns to Strip via Israel
By Amos Harel, Avi Issacharoff and Barak Ravid, Haaretz Correspondents Haaretz Service and Agencies
101 Palestinians who have been stranded in Egypt for nearly two months returned home on Sunday to the Hamas-controlled Strip.
Israel allowed the group to travel to Israel and then re-enter the Strip. They are the first of some 600 expected to return home in the coming days.The Gazans were escorted across the Israel-Gaza border Sunday evening throught the Erez crossing.
Thousands of Palestinians who fled to Egypt when Hamas violently siezed control of the Gaza Strip in mid-June have been unable to return home after border crossings largely remained closed in the wake of the takeover.
Oron Ronen, an Israeli official at the crossing on the Egypt-Israel border said Israel had approved 91 names but at least six more people had arrived hoping to be allowed through. The process was delayed by several hours due to bureaucratic discrepancies between Israel and Egypt, The Associated Press reported.
Palestinian embassy official, Hani al-Jabour, told reporters that around 627 Palestinians would be allowed to cross into Gaza through Israel under a deal agreed upon Saturday.
He said the Palestinians chosen had been chosen on a first-come-first-served basis and that none were wanted by Israel.
The first 100 Palestinians crossed into Israel from Egypt and were transported through Israel, where they were given food and water, to a key Gaza border crossing.
Hamas slams return via Israel
But the former foreign minister in the Hamas government, Mahmoud Zahar, accused the Palestinian Authority and its chairman, Mahmoud Abbas, of planning to extradite wanted Palestinians as they entered Israel to return to Gaza, Israel Radio reported Sunday morning.
Zahar maintained that Abbas' willingness to agree to the extradition explained why Israel agreed to let the 6,000 Palestinians in Egypt back into the Strip via Israeli crossings, instead of through the Gaza-Egypt border at Rafah.
Their return had been delayed by a dispute over the Rafah terminal, which has been closed since Hamas' violent takeover of Gaza. Under a U.S.-brokered agreement between Israel and the Palestinians, the crossing was operated by Egypt and the Palestinians, with European Union observers deployed on the Palestinian side. During Hamas' takeover, the European monitors departed and Hamas militiamen took control of the terminal.
Hamas has rejected proposals to allow Gazans to return through other crossings controlled by Israel, and Israel and Egypt have refused to reopen the Rafah crossing as long as Hamas controls the border.
IDF: Leaks could delay process
Israel Defense Forces officials Saturday doubted that the plan would begin Sunday as scheduled, because of leaks by the Palestinian side regarding the agreement reached with Israel and Egypt.
Israel suspects the information was made public by Palestinians who do not want the plan to go ahead.
This morning's maneuver is billed as a pilot plan: If all goes well, the remaining thousands of stranded Palestinians will return to Gaza later this week.
However, the IDF is worried that Hamas will try to disrupt the group's return, after Palestinian Information Minister Riad Maliki on Saturday revealed details of the agreement.
"Israel has allowed the Palestinians through, on condition that the names of those who enter the Strip are approved in advance," Maliki said.
Hamas denounced the compromise agreement since it allows Israel to decide who can enter Gaza. The concern is that Hamas will try to hit the Erez crossing with mortar shells or by other means.
Israel is already preparing for the possibility of moving the stranded Gazans through crossings other than Erez.
The Egyptian Red Crescent estimated that roughly 5,000 Palestinians have been stranded in dusty Egyptian towns in northern Sinai since Hamas Islamists seized control of the Gaza Strip on June 14 and the main border crossings were closed. Palestinian officials estimate the number of stranded Gazans at between 6,000 and 7,000.
Sources in Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's bureau said that Israel, PA moderates and EU monitors do not want the Rafah crossing opened under present conditions.
"If there's a humanitarian problem, the Palestinians can go through the Kerem Shalom crossing," an official said. "The matter has been discussed for several weeks and the decision is in the Palestinians' hands."