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Olmert, Abbas try to limit Hamas control over border

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Written by News Editor

Sunday, 27 January 2008

JERUSALEM, Jan 27 (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will hold crisis talks on Sunday on how to limit Hamas control over Gaza's breached border with Egypt. Abbas wants to take over Gaza's border crossings, including the one with Egypt that Hamas blasted open on Wednesday. Hundreds of thousands of Gazans have since poured across the border into Egypt to stock up on goods in short supply because of an Israeli-led blockade of the Hamas-controlled territory. Israel has so far resisted the idea of giving Abbas and his West Bank-based government control of the Gaza crossings, citing concerns about security. Even if Olmert were to agree, it is unclear how the Fatah leader would take over the crossings without Hamas's consent. The Islamist group, which is shunned by the West for refusing to give up its fight against the Jewish state, has shown its ability to undercut Egyptian efforts to re-seal the border at Rafah by using bulldozers to open new passages. Abbas asserts that his control over the crossings would relieve Israel's clampdown on Gaza, imposed after Hamas routed rival Fatah forces in the coastal territory last June. In a challenge to the Palestinian president, Hamas said on Saturday it was prepared to restore the ruptured border with Egypt through direct diplomacy with Cairo. Israel has sought to put the onus on Egypt to control Gaza's southern border. Israel, which occupied the impoverished territory in 1967, pulled troops and settlers out in 2005 but still controls its northern and eastern borders, airspace and coastal waters, and has imposed a blockade it says is meant to counter militant rocket fire. Israel tightened its cordon earlier this month by closing the crossings it controls. But, after an international outcry, fuel and aid supplies were partially restored. Olmert spokesman David Baker said Sunday's meeting with Abbas would focus on the Gaza Strip, but he declined to say whether the prime minister was considering handing over control of the crossings. Egypt is under pressure to re-seal the border, but it is reluctant to be seen as shoring up a 7-month-old blockade imposed on Gaza to cripple its Hamas rulers while Abbas pursues peace talks with Israel. "The Egyptians have a delicate problem, and I am sure they will deal with it properly just like any sovereign state which has a peace accord with Israel," Matan Vilnai, Israel's deputy defence minister, told Israel Radio. Abbas, whose authority has effectively been limited to the occupied West Bank, is expected to travel to Egypt on Wednesday for talks. His prime minister, Salam Fayyad, held talks in Cairo over the weekend. U.S. and Israeli officials doubt Abbas's security forces are strong enough to take control of the crossings unless Hamas agrees to their deployment. Hamas accuses Abbas and his West Bank-based government of supporting the closures on Gaza to try to undermine Hamas's public standing among the territory's 1.5 million residents. Abbas and his government deny this. (Reporting by Adam Entous and Avida Landau in Jerusalem, and Wafa Amr in Ramallah; Writing by Adam Entous; Editing by Richard Balmforth)

 

 

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