Militants resist efforts to seal Egypt border

Palestinians flood through new breaches

Palestinians crossed from the Egyptian side of Rafah to the Gaza Strip yesterday over the border wall that was blown up by militants earlier this week. (Eyad Baba/Associated Press)

RAFAH, Gaza Strip - Egypt deployed hundreds of riot-equipped guards yesterday to seal off the Gaza Strip but abruptly withdrew them after defiant Palestinian militants created new breaches in a border fence.

A surging Palestinian crowd that had been pushed from Egyptian soil cheered as a yellow front-end loader, escorted by black-clad Hamas gunmen, punched through three sections of a concrete barrier topped by chain-link fencing.

As border guards fired tear gas and water cannons at the loader, hundreds of people scrambled unchallenged through the openings into Egypt.

Thousands more followed after the Egyptian force retreated to barracks 80 minutes later, intent on avoiding a bloody clash. The Palestinians then used cranes to lift supplies into Gaza, including cattle and camels.

It was a day of seesawing fortunes for Palestinians desperate to keep the border open so they can prolong a three-day shopping spree for goods made scarce by an Israeli blockade. It ended with Hamas, the militant Islamic group that runs the enclave and advocates Israel's destruction, gaining influence in its bid to help determine how the border is regulated and bring an end to Gaza's isolation.

"We insist and urge our Egyptian brothers that there must be a mechanism to allow the passage of people and goods through the Rafah crossing in a legal and organized manner," Hamas government spokesman Taher Nono said yesterday.

The breach poses challenges for Israel and Egypt, and it leaves President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt with few options that are palatable politically.

In an interview published today by the Al-Osboa weekly, Mubarak announced his readiness to host talks between Hamas and its secular Palestinian rival, Fatah, to resolve the border crisis.

He called on Israel to "lift its siege" of Gaza, which was tightened to block nearly all cross-border travel and commerce after Hamas drove Fatah's forces from the territory in June and took control of border posts.

Ayman Taha, Hamas spokesman in Gaza, said Hamas's supreme leader, the Syria-based Khaled Mashaal, was ready to accept an invitation by Mubarak to an "unconditional dialogue" on settling the rift between the Palestinian factions, the Associated Press reported.

Nabil Shaath, the Egypt representative of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, said Fatah has made no decision on the invitation.

Egypt, Hamas, and Fatah each have voiced support for a new protocol that would allow Fatah to again administer Gaza's border posts. Such an arrangement might be more palatable for Israel, which deals directly with Abbas's Fatah-led administration in the West Bank but not with Hamas.

Fatah is certain to object to any deal that preserves Hamas's control of Gaza, however. And Israel, under near-daily rocket attack from Gaza militants, wants Mubarak to uphold his promise to coordinate Israeli and Egyptian actions on the Gaza border in the security interests of both countries.

That commitment wavered with Mubarak's decision not to resist the influx of tens of thousands of Gazans after militants Wednesday blasted down much of the border's most formidable barrier, an 18-foot-high metal wall. Until Wednesday, the Egyptian leader had cooperated with Israel to keep the border shut.

Yesterday's chaotic struggle at the dusty Rafah crossing occurred a day after assurances to the Bush administration that Egypt would restore control.

Egyptian guards in helmets and bulletproof vests spread along a seven-mile stretch of the border before dawn and installed barbed wire and chain-link fences atop waist-high concrete barriers that Palestinians had surmounted Wednesday and Thursday.

The guards stood shoulder to shoulder behind plastic shields, filling gaps between the newly fortified barriers. The human barricade parted to let Gazans return from Egypt with goods such as livestock, refrigerators, paint, potato chips, and printer paper.

But Gazans were barred from going the other way, except through a single narrow passage that many of them, in the confusion of the day, remained unaware of.

By 8 a.m. the crowd trying to get to Egypt had swollen into the tens of thousands. They began surging and throwing stones against the wall of guards. The guards fought back with electrified batons and German shepherds on long leashes.

By midmorning, the crowd had calmed down. A few thousand jostled to get through the only passageway but began throwing rocks when the guards closed it at 1 p.m. Shooting erupted on both sides, mostly into the air.

Two hours later, when the front-loader broke though, the guards lost control. They tried to reseal the new breaches but came under a hail of rocks. Five guards reportedly were injured by rocks and one by gunfire.

The gunmen escorting the loader wore black uniforms typical of Hamas's Izzin al-Qassam militia, a group that fires missiles at Israel.

Israel's blockade, which has sharply diminished Gaza's supplies of fuel, food, medicine, and other vital supplies, is aimed at making life so miserable for Gazans that they turn against Hamas.

But Hamas reaped a propaganda windfall this week from the perception among Gazans that it had orchestrated the border breach and opened a lifeline to Egypt.

Mubarak is under pressure from the United States and Israel to reseal the border.