By Xinhua
Gaza : A senior Hamas lawmaker on Saturday vowed to keep the breaches along Gaza-Egypt borders open if talks with Egypt on reopening the Rafah crossing fail.
“We say we won’t go back to the era of borders’ sealing off and Gaza won’t remain a closed prison,” said Yahia Moussa, chief of Hamas’ parliamentary bloc.
Militants from Hamas, which rules Gaza Strip, blew up the borders with Egypt on Jan. 23, temporarily breaking a full Israeli closure on the costal Strip and allows thousands of Gazans to go to the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing to stock up daily necessities.
The Israeli siege on Gaza dates back to June when Hamas fought and routed security forces loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, taking over Gaza, and last month’s border breach came several days after Israel had imposed a complete blockade on Gaza, cutting off the supplies of fuel and other basic necessities.
Egypt has been under pressure and taking to seal off the border since the breach.
At present, a Hamas delegation is trying to convince Egypt to re-open the Rafah border crossing. If talks did not lead to officially opening Rafah crossing point, the breaches would remain open “in a way making new facts on the grounds and bypassing the degrading deals,” Moussa said.
Egypt and Abbas have proposed returning to an internationally backed 2005 arrangement for the Gaza-Egypt border, which would hand over control on the crossing to the Palestinian security force loyal to Abbas and Israel as well as European monitors. The agreement ruled out any Hamas involvement in the running of the border.
Hamas rejects the arrangement, which provides for the presence of EU monitors on the crossing.
“We won’t allow the Israeli occupation to control the crossing or even letting any party uses the crossing to serve its partisan agenda,” Moussa said, referring to Abbas’ Fatah movement and the Israeli influence on the monitors’ movements.