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Palestinians gather at a destroyed section of the border wall between Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, and Egypt on Wednesday.(AP)
Last update - 09:11 24/01/2008
ANALYSIS: Gaza border breach shows Israel that Hamas is in charge
By Avi Issacharoff and Amos Harel, Haaretz Correspondents
Tags: Egypt border breach 

A few Israel Defense Forces Engineering Corps officers surely shed a tear yesterday while viewing the television reports from Rafah: The barrier built by the IDF with blood and sweat along the Philadelphi Route, on the Gaza Strip border with Egypt, was coming down.

It was, apparently, the final remnant of Israel's years of occupying the Strip. But Israel has better reasons to be worried by what happened yesterday. In destroying the wall separating the Palestinian and Egyptian sides of Rafah, Hamas chalked up a real coup. Not only did the organization demonstrate once again that it is a disciplined, determined entity, and an opponent that is exponentially more sophisticated than the Palestine Liberation Organization. It also took the sting out of the economic blockade plan devised by Israel's military establishment, an idea whose effectiveness was doubtful from the beginning but whose potential for international damage was not.

Israel, Egypt and the Palestinian Authority are now forced to find a new joint border control arrangement, one that will probably depend on the good graces of Hamas. If the PA is indeed interested in taking responsibility for the border crossings, as Prime Minister Salam Fayyad has declared, it will have to negotiate with Hamas even though President Mahmoud Abbas is trying to avoid that at any cost. The other option - to leave the border untended - is even worse.
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The Hamas action yesterday was anything but spontaneous. It was another stage in the campaign that began in Gaza's night of darkness on Sunday. As Gaza was plunged into widely televised blackness, Palestinian children armed with candles were brought out on a protest march and organized into prime-time demonstrations in support of the Egyptian and Jordanian branches of the Muslim Brotherhood.

On Tuesday, Hamas put together a violent demonstration that ended in a confrontation with Egyptian police officers at the border, and, as usual, broadcast live on Al-Jazeera. Apparently it was enough to make Egypt lose its appetite for confrontation.

Yesterday, tens of thousands of people burst through to the west. President Hosni Mubarak explained that he instructed his police officers not to block the hungry on their way to grocery stores in El-Arish and the Egyptian side of Rafah.

Mubarak also had to contend with domestic politics. The violent suppression of the Palestinian masses would have turned up the tension between him and the Muslim Brotherhood, or Al-Jazeera. More than a few Arab commentators now see the Qatar-based satellite channel as the superpower of the Arab world. In many cases its broadcasts clearly promote an Islamic agenda.

Explosions were set at 20 points along the border fence, clear evidence of a campaign that was planned and coordinated well in advance. Israeli intelligence officials will have to explain, to themselves and the country's leaders, whether and how the preparations took place without their knowledge - another Gaza goof, in the wake of the Hamas election victory in January 2006 and the rapid military drubbing it gave Fatah in the Strip last June.

Most of the Gazans who crossed into Egypt are expected to return home within a few days, after stocking up on staples and meeting with relatives they have not seen for years. Meanwhile, Egyptian security forces set up dozens of checkpoints to prevent the Gazans from spreading into other areas of Sinai.



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      1.   the title of this news shows that the palestinians 05:55  |  nmf 24/01/08
      2.   Undefatiguable underminers Peres with Olmert obssession of 05:55  |  Joseph E . 24/01/08
      3.   Down comes the first Israeli wall... 05:59  |  Silvienne 24/01/08
      4.   Should Israel have kept Philadelphia root? 05:59  |  GPS 24/01/08
      5.   Hubris its called...zio intelligence assumes it smarter 06:10  |  Assad-u-LLAH 24/01/08
      6.   Livni still proud to say that a terror State is an Israeli intere 06:19  |  Joseph E . 24/01/08
      7.   wall breach 06:20  |  Shmuelshachor 24/01/08
      8.   military solution 06:37  |  jean la salle 24/01/08
      9.   Good riddens 07:12  |  Tal 24/01/08
      10.   Gaza 07:25  |  Roger Kaputnik 24/01/08
      11.   Now lock the door and throw away the key 07:31  |  B (The other one) 24/01/08
      12.   why is it any of israels business 07:35  |  Ben 24/01/08
      13.   Gaza and Hamas are a lucky call 07:56  |  Kris 24/01/08
      14.   blah blah blah 08:01  |  Andre 24/01/08
      15.   STILL WANTS A WAR WITH IRAN, BABY? 08:23  |  indrajaya 24/01/08
      16.   The real message. 08:25  |  Colin Wright 24/01/08
      17.   HAARETZ DOESN`T LIKE AL JAZEERA 08:31  |  indrajaya 24/01/08
      18.   #15 colin has it upside down as usual 08:48  |  v hardman 24/01/08
      19.   Tear down that wall! 08:49  |  syvanen 24/01/08
      20.   Silvienne is right - the siege is over 08:52  |  Joe Sittizen 24/01/08
      21.   Israel has morality 09:04  |  Gazan 24/01/08
      22.   #10 B - What Door? 09:12  |  Pablo B 24/01/08
      23.   STILL WANT TO TEAR MORE 09:12  |  ANWAR 24/01/08
      24.   Gaza was Egyptian anyway.... 09:59  |  Eli Baekan 24/01/08
      25.   Hamas & Egypt 09:59  |  Paulo 24/01/08
      26.   Indrajaya (a.k.a. Lakshmi) Likes States That Fight Fighters 10:02  |  Craig 24/01/08
      27.   I see the intelligence. 10:21  |  bobby 24/01/08
      28.   a puppet then... a puppet now. 10:24  |  Mr. Jang 24/01/08
      29.   #18 - hardman 10:34  |  H 24/01/08
      30.   #29 where do you get that idea? 10:59  |  v hardman 24/01/08
      31.   Winners and losers 11:07  |  Johnboy 24/01/08
      32.   To Gazan #21 One day power supply is not `exterminate` 11:17  |  Ulf 24/01/08
      33.   Where did the Gazans get all that money from 11:19  |  Gary 24/01/08
      34.   To #17 Aljazeera and Haaretz 11:22  |  Ulf 24/01/08
      35.   Hoo Ya !!! 11:22  |  Go Big Green 24/01/08
      36.   #25 Paulo - No headache at all! 11:41  |  Yonatan 24/01/08
      37.   This is why approaching the Israeli border... 11:50  |  Nik Miller 24/01/08
      38.   Great, now Gaza became Egyptian problem! 11:56  |  IL supporter 24/01/08
      39.   HAMAS PREVAILS ONCE AGAIN 12:06  |  VIPER 24/01/08
      40.   GAZA....Concentration Camp 12:07  |  Roosim Khalaf 24/01/08
      41.   like aljazeera, haaretz is so anti israel that it divides the 12:12  |  Scared Palestinian 24/01/08
      42.   what scares me is seeing my people being walked down the plank of 12:19  |  scrared palestinian 24/01/08
      43.   We love Indrajaya 12:22  |  Saddam 24/01/08
      44.   Nothing smart about Hamas, just evil 12:24  |  Joe Sittizen 24/01/08
      45.   Dear Roosim Khalaf in Hinsdale 12:30  |  Joe Sittizen 24/01/08
      46.   Hamas falls into Israeli trap 12:32  |  arun 24/01/08
      47.   #46 Mighty fine Rose Coloured glasses there, arun 12:53  |  Johnboy 24/01/08
      48.   Amos, Amos, Amos....what a waiste 13:50  |  Buzaglow 24/01/08
      49.   looser israel 14:13  |  wahad ghazzawi 24/01/08
      50.   They belong in Egypt 14:37  |  Petra 24/01/08
      51.   Wahad 14:40  |  Bentolila 24/01/08
      52.   Does anyone think of Gaza as a big concentration camp? 14:43  |  Zaki 24/01/08
      53.   Hamas tactic to win, is both damaging to Egypt and Israel 14:57  |  Zaki 24/01/08
      54.   To Yonatan #36,and Paulo #25 15:02  |  Bernardo 24/01/08
      55.   # 53, ZAKI 15:17  |  indrajaya 24/01/08
      56.   to #33 Gary where the Gazan gets their money 15:39  |  Zaki 24/01/08
      57.   to # 53 indrajaya but how to do that? 15:53  |  Zaki 24/01/08
      58.   Double the barrier between Gaza and Israel 15:58  |  Philip 24/01/08
      59.   #53. It`s simple, recognize HAMAS`s right as a legitimate partner 18:42  |  ManInTheMiddle 24/01/08
      60.   You are all wrong-Hamas looses 19:45  |  Joseph 24/01/08
      61.   man on the right of the man in the middle (you must be in the 20:00  |  Angry Palestinian 24/01/08
      62.   Gaza Border 20:08  |  dalia 24/01/08
      63.   The objectives of Hamas - #57 to #61 21:06  |  Jack 24/01/08
      64.   bring the wall down, said reagan, bring the 23:01  |  bozhidar balkas 24/01/08
      65.   # 57, ZAKI 01:43  |  indrajaya 25/01/08
      66.   To arun 16:55  |  Person 25/01/08
      67.   #53, ZAKI, right and wrong 12:13  |  VIPER 28/01/08
      68.   So NMF, If the Palestines are Lucifer, Who Is God? 01:16  |  Reader 03/02/08
      69.   Andre, Now Perhaps the Naval Blockade Can End 01:31  |  Reader 03/02/08
      70.   Ulf, Eyes Wide Open 02:05  |  Reader 03/02/08