Officials: Israel won't let Gaza border breach threaten security

Israel will not tolerate the continued threat to its security posed by Hamas militants' breach of the Gaza Strip's border with Egypt, officials in Jerusalem told Haaretz on Sunday.

"Israel will not allow the continuation of the current state where its security interests are being compromised," the officials said, days after the Hamas regime blew up the barrier along the Strip's border with Egypt.

The officials added that Prime Minster Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas see eye to eye on what they perceive as the need to refrain from negotiations with Hamas.

Following the border breach, Israeli defense officials have expressed concerns that militants from the Gaza Strip may attack towns along Israel's long border with Sinai.

Meanwhile, Olmert told Abbas during their meeting Sunday that Israel would not let a humanitarian crisis develop in Gaza.

Palestinian sources who attended the Olmert and Abbas meeting told Haaretz that Olmert is seeking to transfer the responsibility for humanitarian problems in the Strip to Egypt.

Hamas' dramatic border breach was the focus of the meeting between Olmert and Abbas at the prime minister's official residence in Jerusalem. The prime minister assured Abbas that Israel would not cut off the supply of food and medicine to the Gaza Strip.

Olmert and Abbas agreed they would demand that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak close the ruptured fence separating the northern Sinai from the Gaza Strip; Abbas is scheduled to meet with Mubarak to discuss this on Wednesday.

Hamas has sent a delegation of senior officials, headed by the organization's political leader, Khaled Meshal, to conduct talks in Saudi Arabia over developments since the border was destroyed. That delegation is also slated to travel to Egypt on Wednesday to discuss procedures for operating the Rafah border crossing into Egypt.

Although Abbas and the Hamas leader are scheduled to visit Egypt together, Palestinian sources said the two parties would not meet, and would negotiate only with the Egyptians.

Hamas officials on Sunday denied reports that Egypt has agreed to let the Palestinian Authority, headed by Abbas, take control of the border crossing between the Hamas-ruled Strip and Sinai.

One of the organization's spokesmen in the Strip, Sami Abu Zuhri, told reporters that Egyptian officials had told Hamas that they want to work out a new arrangement to manage Gaza's border with Egypt, in talks with Hamas and Abbas' Fatah faction.

"We are offering an alternative: operating the Rafah crossing and coordinating its operation with the Egyptian authorities," Abu Zuhri said.

Israeli officials have said that Olmert has so far rejected the idea of Abbas' government controlling the border crossings.

	A Palestinian man walks under the rain past a breach on the Gaza border wall on Sunday. (Reuters)