De grens tussen Gaza en Egypte schijnt sinds maandag weer open te zijn, na gevechten tussen Palestijnen uit Gaza en Egyptische grenswachten.
Eerder verklaarde Egypte:
Speaking after a meeting between Mubarak and European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana, presidential spokesman Suleiman Awad said that Egypt would not allow the border to reopen. "Egypt is a respectable country," he said. "You can't break open its borders and throw stones at its soldiers."
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Report: Egypt reopens border after clashes with Gazans
Report: Egypt reopens border after clashes with Gazans
By Yoav Stern, Avi Issacharoff and Barak Ravid, Haaretz Correspondents
The border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip was reopened Monday evening and Egyptian troops are allowing free passage, Palestinian sources told Haaretz.
A Palestinian man was killed and at least 44 Gazans and Egyptians were wounded Monday in an exchange of fire that erupted between masked Palestinian gunmen and Egyptian forces at Gaza's border with Egypt, Palestinian medical officials said.
It was the most serious outbreak of violence on the border since Hamas militants blew down the border wall on January 23. Egyptian forces resealed the border on Sunday.
On Monday, a Palestinian militant blew himself up in the southern Israeli town of Dimona, killing one woman and wounding 11 people. He was said to have entered along with another militant from Egypt.
On the Palestinian side, a 42-year-old man was killed and six people were wounded by gunfire, said a Gaza health official, Dr. Moaiya Hassanain.
Egyptian authorities said 38 members of the Egyptian security forces, including a colonel, were wounded.
Egyptian forces fired live bullets at the crowd, wounding several, witnesses said.
Later, members of the Hamas security force fired back.
After the clash, four vehicles carrying Hamas security force members drove in to break up the crowd, using sticks to push people away from the border.
The tensions began when the Egyptian guards sealed the border hermetically Monday, not even allowing Egyptians and Gazans who had found themselves on the wrong side of the border to return home.
Witnesses said anger boiled over in the late afternoon as people on both sides waited for permission to cross over. Gazans started throwing stones at the Egyptians, and Hamas did not interfere.
Youths began pelting an Egyptian command post in the area, and forces there first threw stones back, and then fired tear gas. Medics said 26 people were treated for tear gas inhalation.
Egyptian security officials in nearby El-Arish said Egyptian officers fired in the air. In Cairo, an official said there was a heavy exchange of fire. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to disclose details to the media.
Egypt closed the border on Sunday, using metal spikes and barbed wire, ending a 12-day breach that had allowed hundreds of thousands of Gazans to visit Egyptian border towns.
Egyptian forces detain Palestinian carrying explosives in Rafah
Egyptian police have detained a Palestinian man carrying explosives in the border town of Rafah, security sources said on Monday.
The arrest came as Palestinian militants infiltrated the southern Israeli city of Dimona, carrying out a suicide bombing, which killed one person and wounded 11 others.
In a separate incident, five Palestinians were detained in Sinai on their way to Cairo, security sources said. The men were not carrying weapons or explosives.
On Sunday, a spokesman for Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said that Cairo wants Hamas and Fatah to jointly operate the border crossing between Gaza and Egypt.
Speaking after a meeting between Mubarak and European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana, presidential spokesman Suleiman Awad said that Egypt would not allow the border to reopen. "Egypt is a respectable country," he said. "You can't break open its borders and throw stones at its soldiers."
What Egypt would prefer, he said, is for the Rafah crossing to reopen under the same arrangements that were in place before Hamas took over Gaza last June - namely, under Palestinian control alongside EU monitors. The monitors left after the Hamas takeover, causing the crossing to be shut. Now, said Awad, "the ball is in the Europeans' court."
Solana said that the EU monitors would return if all parties concerned agreed, and added that the EU was working to achieve such an agreement.
Awad also stressed that Hamas needed to reach an agreement on this issue with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and his Fatah movement.
Egypt's proposal, he said, is that Fatah and Hamas operate the crossing jointly.
Egyptian policemen and Hamas officials jointly erected a wire fence and iron barriers along the Gaza border Sunday, and Egyptian policemen then deployed along the makeshift wall with clubs. Despite the closure, some Palestinians were allowed into Egypt, but fewer than in previous days.
Hamas said that Egypt must now reach an agreement with it on reopening the border officially.
After the Dimona bombing on Monday, the town's mayor said Defense Minister Ehud Barak promised him that a security fence would be constructed along Israel's border with Egypt by 2010.
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