RAFAH, Egypt (AFP) – Egypt resealed the border with the Gaza Strip except for two crossing points on Tuesday as it tried to stem the uncontrolled movement that has seen hundreds of thousands cross in the past week.
By sundown Egyptian forces had stapled coils of razor wire along most of the breaches which Palestinian militants blew in the border fence last week leaving just two points where movement continued in both directions.
Groups of bearded Hamas gunmen stood guard on the Gaza side, allowing pedestrians and trucks to cross over to the Egyptian side of the divided frontier town of Rafah, but barring passage to taxis and private cars.
On the Egyptian side, riot police lined roads leading to the border wall while small groups of soldiers stood guard at the newly resealed breaches as well as the two remaining crossings.
A security force of around 20,000 has been deployed in the north of the Sinai peninsula since Saturday, a security source told AFP, many of them picking up Palestinians and returning them to the border.
Hundreds of thousands of Gazans have swarmed into Egypt since militants blew holes in the border wall on January 22 to break a crippling Israeli blockade that left much of the territory without power and basic foodstuffs.
While most have crossed to stock up on essential supplies, some have taken the opportunity to reunite, however briefly, with relatives after years of separation by the border.
The mass influx of desperate Palestinian shoppers has paradoxically left the Egyptian part of town short of basic goods as the Egyptians authorities have prevented trucks bringing in fresh supplies from further afield.
Amid the moves to restore order to the border, Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas was to hold talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Wednesday and a Hamas delegation was also to travel to Cairo.
The Islamist delegation was to be headed by hardliner Mahmud Zahar, Hamas’s most influential leader in Gaza, who has had two sons killed in Israeli air strikes, one just two weeks ago.
A Hamas official said the team was prepared to meet Abbas, who has previously ruled out dialogue with the Islamists unless they relinquish control of the Gaza Strip.
Hamas’s exiled supremo Khaled Meshaal meanwhile held Riyadh talks with Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal on Monday about the possibility of resuming an inter-Palestinian dialogue, one of his aides said. Saudi Arabia last year brokered a power-sharing deal which led to a short-lived national unity government embracing both the rival Palestinian factions.
Israel has welcomed the possibility of Egypt striking a deal with Abbas to restore order to the border with Gaza, which has been under Hamas rule since its fighters routed forces loyal to the Palestinian president in June.
The White House has described Israel’s blockade of Gaza — where most of its 1.5 million population rely on outside aid — as an act of justifiable self-defence in the face of rocket attacks from the territory into Israel.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice offered support for Abbas — whose power base has been restricted to the West Bank since Hamas seized Gaza — to deploy security forces along the border.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit telephoned Rice and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana to express Egypt’s “determination to take gradual control of the border,” his ministry said.
Hamas member of parliament Salah al-Bardawil said the Islamist group wanted new arrangements at the Gaza-Egypt border to replace a 2005 agreement which Abbas reached with Israel.
Under that accord, the Rafah crossing was supposed to be supervised by European Union monitors with cameras to allow Israel to see those passing through. But prime minister Salam Fayyad made clear that the Palestinian leadership would oppose any attempt by Hamas to revise the 2005 arrangements, insisting that international borders were exclusively its prerogative.