RAFAH CROSSING CLOSURE A BLOW TO PALESTINIAN RECONCILIATION

The decision, taken after the Egyptian mosque attack, may undermine detente between Hamas and Fatah

The Palestinian people are going to suffer what they have been suffering for a longer period of time. That is our fate SALAH BARDAWIL Hamas official

Egypt’s decision to close the Rafah crossing into Gaza after Friday’s horrific mosque attack has dampened Gazans’ hopes of access to the outside world after reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas.

Even before militants in North Sinai killed 305 worshippers in the Bir Al Abd mosque it was clear that Cairo was not ready to open Rafah regularly, despite Palestinian Authority security forces taking control of it.

The handover by Hamas on November 1 was part of a deal reached in Cairo on October 12.

Hamas official Salah Bardawil complained about this last week after returning from follow-up talks on the deal in the Egyptian capital. He said the opening of the crossing had not been discussed

“Unfortunately it was not possible to discuss this issue,” Mr Bardawil said.

“The Palestinian people are going to suffer what they have been suffering for a longer period. That is our fate.”

Egypt opened Rafah for three days from November 18 and had planned to open it for three days from last Saturday. Now it is closed until further notice.

Over the past decade, the opening of the crossing has been subject to Palestinian and Egyptian politics.

The border was virtually shut in 2007 after Hamas seized power in the Gaza Strip, as Israel’s curbs on its Erez crossing with Gaza took effect.

Passage through Rafah was restricted until Mohammed Morsi, whose Muslim Brotherhood regime was close to Hamas, came to power in 2011.

Egypt reimposed the closure after Abdel Fattah El Sisi ousted the group in 2013 and became president.

The Israeli rights group Gisha said Rafah was open for only 17 days in the first half of this year, none of them consecutive.

Beginning in June, relations between Egypt and Hamas improved, raising hopes that the crossing would be opened.

Egypt had accused Hamas of supporting Sinai insurgents and allowing them to use Gaza as a refuge.

But now it expected Hamas to take security steps on Gaza’s border with Sinai and become an ally against the insurgency.

In return, Hamas leaders hoped that the Egyptians would overturn their policy on Rafah.

But in August, Mr Bardawil told Hamas’s Al Aqsa TV that Rafah would be opened only intermittently when renovations were finished.

Egyptian intelligence, he said, had made absolute security in Sinai a condition for a complete opening of Rafah. Cairo wanted to use Rafah to ensure Hamas introduced security measures.

But after Hamas and Fatah reached a reconciliation two months later and Palestinian Authority forces took control of the crossing, Gazans expected Egypt to change its policy.

There were, however, signs that this expectation would not be quickly met, even before Friday’s attack.

Mkhaimar Abusada, a political scientist at Gaza’s Al Azhar University, said the Egyptians had made it clear to Palestinian delegates in Cairo last week that the use of Rafah would continue to be curtailed.

“The Egyptians told the Palestinian delegates that they had concerns about the security of Palestinian travellers in Sinai because of the insurgents, and that there is a security problem for the Palestinians making the eight-hour drive from Rafah to Cairo,” Mr Abusada said.

He said the Egyptians wanted to restrict the flow of people from Gaza into Egypt because they had discovered that some of the insurgents staging attacks on Egyptian forces were Palestinians from Gaza.

The result of the Egyptian policy is frustration.

“Palestinians thought the closure was because of the Hamas takeover in 2007,” Mr Abusada said. “With the reconciliation efforts, they were hopeful Rafah would be open again and that they would be able to get in and out like human beings.

“But now it seems that Rafah may never be open again because of the security situation in Sinai.”

Gisha said there were about 30,000 Gazans waiting for a chance to leave through Rafah.

Menachem Klein, an Israeli scholar of Palestinian politics, is more optimistic about the future of reconciliation and the opening of Rafah.

In Mr Klein’s view, Friday’s attack will only increase Egypt’s determination to bring about Palestinian reconciliation.

He expects Cairo to press the authority’s president, Mahmoud Abbas, to be more flexible in negotiations and to lift sanctions on Gazans, such as cutting the salaries of the authority’s workers.

“Egypt is determined to go ahead with reconciliation,” said Mr Klein, who teaches at Bar Ilan University, Tel Aviv.

“It needs stability and good security in the Gaza Strip and on the borders.

“If the humanitarian crisis continues in Gaza this is fertile ground for radical Islam and creates instability in Gaza, which can move into Sinai.”