Hamas: PA colluding to uphold Gaza blockade

Senior official says group offered to hand control of main border crossing into Egypt to Abbas, but was refused

By ToI Staff and Agencies 5 December 2015, 12:26 pm

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Palestinians gather at the Rafah Border Crossing in the southern Gaza Strip, as they await permission to enter Egypt, June 12, 2015. (Flash90/Aaed Tayeh)

A senior Hamas official has accused the Palestinian Authority of actively participating in the blockade of the Gaza Strip by refusing to manage its main border crossing, Israel Radio reported Saturday.

Moussa Abu Marzouk said that the PA refused a proposal for its officials to oversee the Rafah Border Crossing between Egypt and Gaza and deploy Mahmoud Abbas’ presidential guard at the site alongside Hamas civilian workers.

The Rafah crossing is Gaza’s main gateway to the outside world. Few Gazans are permitted to travel through the Israeli border to the north, though Israeli crossings are used daily to transfer cargo into Gaza.

Egypt has kept the crossing virtually sealed since the 2013 military overthrow of Islamist president Mohammed Morsi, who was a close ally of Hamas. Due to the closure, thousands of Gazans are waiting to travel abroad.

Senior Hamas official Moussa Abu Marzouk speaks to media in Rafah crossing in the southern Gaza Strip after negotiations in Cairo, August 28, 2014 (Abed Rahim Khatib/Flash90)

Hamas, a heavily armed group that is shunned as a terrorist organization by the West and seeks the destruction of Israel, remains in full control of Gaza. The internationally backed Palestinian Authority, which governs in the West Bank, has no presence there. Repeated attempts to reconcile the rival governments have failed.

Palestinians over the weekend began making calls on social networks for Hamas to hand responsibility for the terminal to the PA, thereby permitting regular, continuous crossings at the border.

Marzouk’s claim comes less than a month after a senior Palestinian official announced an agreement between the PA and Egypt to reopen the crossing, in an arrangement meant to bypass Hamas.

Azzam al-Ahmad, an aide to Abbas, said the deal aimed to open the Rafah crossing “to the maximum possible,” to allow the movement of students, laborers, medical patients and even commercial goods.

Egypt opened the crossing on Thursday for first time in 100 days, the radio said, allowing hundreds of Palestinians to pass in both directions. According to the report, the terminal has been open for a total of 21 days in 2015.