Israel 's refusal to reopen the Rafah terminal is causing turmoil on both sides of the Egyptian Gaza border, reports Serene Assir from Rafah and Arish, North Sinai
| Gazans sit idly in the North Sinai town of Arish: around 100 Palestinians trapped in Egypt for the fourth week now have announced a hunger strike to exercise pressure on the authorities to open the Rafah frontier post
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The Rafah crossing on the Egypt-Gaza border remains closed for the fourth week in a row, leaving the Gaza Strip's 1.3 million inhabitants effectively cut off from the rest of the world. According to the Egyptian government, the closure has left up to 5,000 Palestinians stranded on the Egyptian side of the border, including Palestinian students at Egyptian universities, those injured during inter-Palestinian clashes and Israeli raids, as well as visitors from other Arab countries seeking to return home.
Over the past week, negotiations have been ongoing to resolve the crisis. Israel, with the support of Fatah's emergency government, is pushing for the Israeli-Egyptian controlled Kerem Abu Salem (Kerem Shalom in Hebrew) crossing to be used instead of Rafah, which is under nominal Palestinian-Egyptian control.
Pro-US Fatah officials say the plan is to use the Israeli-controlled terminal in order to put an end to the plight of those trapped on the border, and then return to using the Rafah crossing. Ousted Hamas premier Ismail Haniyeh opposes such a move, fearing it will create a precedent and that control over exit and entry into Gaza will return to Israel's hands. "The border must remain Palestinian- Egyptian only," he told reporters.
As if to confirm his suspicions, reports are rife that EU monitors, who under a US- brokered 2005 agreement are charged with overseeing traffic to and from Gaza, have already left the area.
Israel appeared determined to press ahead with its plans to funnel traffic exclusively through the Kerem Abu Salem border crossing despite opposition from Hamas until explosions, apparently caused by 11 mortar shells fired by Palestinians, rocked the crossing on 10 July. Otherwise, the Kerem Abu Salem terminal, unlike Rafah, has functioned, albeit sporadically, throughout the closure, with goods moving from Egypt into Gaza, though only to a limited degree and with Israeli permission.
Meanwhile, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has been involved in negotiations with the Israelis over the repatriation of 32 patients at the Red Crescent-run Palestine Hospital in Cairo who are waiting to return home. "The Israelis say they have no issue with their repatriation," said Ziad Abu Laban, ICRC's regional coordinator for humanitarian law. "However, they stipulate that re-entry be made via Kerem Abu Salem, which they directly control."
Palestinians stranded in Rafah and Arish are becoming increasingly frustrated with the seemingly endless nature of their plight. "On the one hand, we know that if we accept Israel's conditions and re-enter via Kerem Abu Salem, then we will effectively be ceding our right to the little sovereignty we claim," said Bushra Abu Subeih, a teacher at an UNRWA school in Gaza who has been stranded in Rafah for 39 days. "But if we refuse, then who knows when we will return home. That's Israeli policy for you. The whole world wants us to kneel to the Jews. We have refused so far, but you can see for yourself how hard they try."
Egypt , inevitably, is enmeshed in the crisis. The Egyptian government's support of Fatah could not be more clear given that it is hosting up to 500 Fatah operatives who fled Gaza during last month's clashes with Hamas. They are staying as guests at an Egyptian Central Security Forces camp in Rafah.
"Of course it is in Egypt's interest for the crisis to end as quickly as possible," Mohamed Shaker, vice-chairman of the Egyptian Council of Foreign Relations, told Al-Ahram Weekly. Indeed, the official line in Cairo is that agreement should be fostered as soon as possible in order to allow stranded Palestinians to return home.
In recent weeks Egypt has come under growing pressure to improve security along its border with Gaza, an issue that came to a head when the US House of Representatives voted to make $200 million of US military aid to Egypt conditional on such improvement. But initial proposals to tighten security by increasing Egypt's security presence at the border contravene protocol as well as key articles in Egypt's 1979 peace treaty with Israel, which strictly defines the number and type of Egyptian security presence at the border. Any increase would require new negotiations.
"If either party feels there is a need to change part of the treaty then the option of reviewing it must not be ruled out," said Shaker. "Of course, the needs of all parties involved must be taken into account, and any review process will take time."
As long as Israeli anger over Hamas's control of Gaza grows it is unlikely that there will be any de-escalation of the current crisis. And with the likelihood of Israeli incursions into Gaza growing, Egyptian authorities are bracing themselves for an increase in the number of refugees. The government has already earmarked land in Arish as the site for a possible camp should a new influx of Palestinians arrive, one highly-placed humanitarian source told the Weekly on condition of anonymity.
Those besieged in Gaza are deeply aware of the indignity of the situation into which they have been forced. "In 1948, we were forced to live in tents," says Mohamed Dahman, a veteran Palestinian journalist living in Gaza. "In 1967, it was the same. Mark my words, a new refugee crisis is in the offing."
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