Rafah crossing opening closer: sources
Egypt and Palestinian Authority in talks over remaining obstacles to
reopening Gaza border crossing
Kifah Ziboun Asharq Al-Awsat Monday, 29 Sep, 2014
http://www.aawsat.net/2014/09/article55337064

Ramallah, Asharq Al-Awsat—Palestinian factions are getting closer to
reopening the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Palestinian
territories, following an agreement last Thursday between rivals Hamas and
Fatah to hand over control of the Gaza Strip to a Palestinian unity
government.

Informed Palestinian sources told Asharq Al-Awsat: “Opportunities for
reaching an agreement on fully reopening the Rafah border crossing are much
stronger now with Hamas out of the picture,” adding that talks were
“currently ongoing between the Palestinian Authority and Egypt in order to
overcome any obstacles.”

Reopening the crossing is conditional upon the unity government taking
control of the Strip, as per last Thursday’s agreement in Cairo between
rival groups Fatah and Hamas to hand over control of the Gaza Strip to a
government headed by Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah.

The two groups had already agreed to a national unity government in May, but
those plans were derailed following a dispute over the non-payment of public
sector workers’ salaries in Gaza and the month-long Israeli offensive
against the Strip, which started in July.

Islamist group Hamas has been in control of the Strip since its 2007
election victory. Part of August’s Egyptian-brokered ceasefire agreement
between militant groups in Gaza and Israel stipulated that a Palestinian
unity government take control of the Strip and its border crossings.

But details regarding the Rafah border crossing on the border with
Egypt—which Israel long contends has been used to smuggle weapons into the
territories—were left out of discussions, which Cairo deemed a purely
“Egyptian–Palestinian matter.”

Meanwhile, Israeli news website Walla! reported on Sunday that Hamas had
agreed for 3,000 members of security forces employed by the Palestinian
Authority to run all the territory’s border crossings. Senior Hamas member
Mahmoud Al-Zahhar said the group had “no objections” to the plan and that
what was “really needed right now is for the [unity] government to act in
order to resolve the issue.”

Since Hamas took over the Gaza Strip in 2007, the area has been almost
entirely blockaded, with all border crossings sealed—except Rafah’s, which
was only closed in July of last year following an attack on Egyptian
security forces by Islamists affiliated to Hamas. The border has only been
open intermittently since then.