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| By Israel Insider staff August 15, 2008 |
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The Egyptian government has informed Hamas that it will not reopen the Rafah border crossing until the movement releases kidnapped IDF soldier St.-Sgt. Gilad Schalit, a Hamas official in Gaza said Thursday, the Jerusalem Post reported.
The official complained that the Egyptian condition was "completely unacceptable" and said the Egyptians had promised to reopen the crossing within four weeks after the cease-fire agreement reached nearly two months ago between Israel and Hamas with Egypt's mediation. "They said the border would be opened if Hamas abided by the cease-fire and stopped the rocket attacks on Israel," the Hamas official told The Jerusalem Post by phone. Although there have been fewer mortar and rocket attacks than in the past, each week bring several ceasefire violations.
According to the Hamas official, the Egyptians are "afraid" to open the Rafah terminal for fear of being "reprimanded" by Israel, the Americans and the Palestinian Authority. "They are all afraid that the reopening of the border would strengthen Hamas and weaken the Palestinian Authority leadership in Ramallah," he added. "[PA President] Mahmoud Abbas is also exerting heavy pressure on Egypt not to reopen Rafah. He doesn't want Hamas to be in control of the Palestinian side of the terminal. He [Abbas] wants his men to return to the terminal, as was the case before June 2007."
A senior Egyptian government official told Hamas leaders earlier this week that even if Cairo agreed to reopen the Rafah border, it would do so only under the terms of the 2005 US-brokered agreement that gave Abbas's security forces exclusive control over the terminal, the Hamas official said. "We're not completely opposed to the deployment of some of Abbas's loyalists at the border, but we insist that such a move be done in coordination with the legitimate Hamas government," he explained. Asked if Hamas were holding secret talks with Israel over a prisoner exchange, the Hamas official would neither confirm nor deny rumors of such negotiations.
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