CAIRO (IPS) — Authorities sealed the border with the Gaza Strip earlier this month after more than a half million Palestinians flooded into Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula in late January. But while most have since returned home, the episode served to highlight Egypt’s tenuous control over its border with the troubled territory next door.
Palestinians move through the border wall between Egypt and Gaza strip in the town of Rafah Jan. 26, 08. |
On Jan. 23, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians flocked into North Sinai from the Gaza Strip after the 14-km border wall was partially leveled by a series of explosions. Most of those crossing into Egypt seized the opportunity to buy essential foodstuffs and medicines not available in Gaza.
All means in or out of the Gaza Strip, which is governed by the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas, are controlled by the Israeli authorities. Meanwhile, an almost two-year-old Israeli embargo — sanctioned by the U.S. and the E.U. — continues to prevent vital monies and supplies from reaching the strip’s estimated 1.5 million inhabitants.
In an effort to isolate the territory, Israel — which, along with the U.S., calls Hamas a “terrorist organization” — has consistently pressed Egypt to keep the border closed.
The unexpected border traffic into Egypt contravened a 2005 security arrangement between Tel Aviv and the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority (PA). That agreement, which regulates the administration of the Palestinian side of the Rafah border crossing, requires the presence of E.U. observers at Rafah to monitor movement in and out of the territory.
The E.U. observers, however, departed Rafah last June, only days before Hamas took over governance of the Gaza Strip. They have not returned since, citing security concerns, effectively making use of the crossing impossible.
Initially, Cairo — which had until then kept the border sealed in deference to the Israel-PA security arrangement — appeared ready to tolerate the influx of desperate Gazans.
“I told (the authorities) to let them come in and buy food…as long as they weren’t carrying weapons,” President Hosni Mubarak said, as rising numbers of Palestinians swarmed across the frontier.
Mubarak’s lenient reaction to the breach, seen as the first real challenge to Israel’s siege of the territory, met with widespread public approval. The president even received praise from members of the Islamist opposition.
“The president’s decision was a strong show of Egyptian opposition to U.S. and Israeli policies regarding Gaza,” Essam al-Arian, a leading member of the Muslim Brotherhood opposition movement, told IPS. “It was welcomed by the people and by all stripes of the political opposition.”
But despite Mubarak’s initial concern for the besieged Gazans’ plight, the border was sealed again less than two weeks later. After the vast majority of Gazans had re-crossed the frontier on their way home — having stocked up on vital supplies — the Rafah crossing was officially closed Feb. 3.
On the same day, limited clashes erupted near the border between some Palestinians and Egyptian security forces. One Palestinian man was reportedly killed in the melee and 46 Egyptian border guards injured.
Consequently, the official attitude towards the Gazan visitors hardened noticeably, with the state press portraying them as real or potential security threats.
The Feb. 5 edition of government daily al-Gomhouriya reported the arrest of one Palestinian man near the border, allegedly caught with a belt rigged with explosives. “Security agencies are carrying out a comprehensive search…for Palestinians infiltrating from Rafah into the Egyptian interior,” the paper added.
Several independent observers, however, questioned the report’s veracity.
“Talk in the government press about explosive belts is totally unsubstantiated,” said al-Arian. “The state’s claim that Gazans in Sinai represent a security threat to Egypt is false.”
Kandil agreed with this assessment.
“Official press reports about ‘suicide belts’ are untrue,” he said. “The government is simply trying to erode public sympathy for the besieged Palestinians of Gaza.”
The next day, however, Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul-Gheit stressed Egypt’s refusal to tolerate future unsolicited cross-border incursions.
“Egypt won’t allow the border to be breached a second time,” Aboul-Gheit said on state television Feb. 6. Employing an unusually harsh tone, he added, “Anyone approaching the border will have his legs broken.”
Since the re-closure, the authorities have rounded up some 2,000 Palestinians that had remained in North Sinai, escorting them back over the border. Most recently, on Feb. 19, a group of several hundred Palestinians was reportedly sent back by the Egyptian authorities without incident.
According to local sources, only a few hundred Palestinians still remain in the area.
“The situation has largely returned to normal,” Hatem al-Buluk, journalist and North Sinai resident, told IPS. “Most Gazans had no intention to stay here – they came only to stock up on food and medicine.”
The future of the contentious Rafah crossing, meanwhile, remains open to question. Sporadic talks between Cairo and Hamas officials have yet to produce any definitive agreement on border protocols.
Al-Arian, for his part, sees the issue as having crucial implications both for Egypt’s sovereignty and security.
“The Rafah crossing must be kept open on a permanent basis — Israel can’t be allowed to exert control over Egypt’s own border with Gaza,” he said. “The security of the Palestinians — and Egypt — has become inextricably linked with the functionality of this crossing.”
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