ISMAILIYA, EGYPT/GAZA — Egypt reopened the Rafah border crossing with Gaza on Saturday, a lifeline for Gazans which had been closed for much of the month since an attack on Egyptian guards, Palestinian and Egyptian security sources said.

The move signals an advance in relations between Egypt’s new government lead by President Mohamed Morsi and Gaza’s Islamist rulers Hamas, which had deteriorated since the attack in which gunmen killed 16 Egyptian soldiers on the Israeli border.

“The Egyptian side has informed us that the Rafah crossing would open all days of the week, without more details,” said Ihab Ghussein, spokesperson for the interior ministry in Gaza, Reuters reported.

The opening of the crossing was confirmed by an Egyptian security source.

Shortly after the attack, Egypt closed the Rafah crossing and moved to seal myriad smuggling tunnels with Gaza on suspicion they might have been used by militants who shot dead the soldiers before storming an Israeli border crossing near Gaza.

The attackers were killed by Israeli fire.

The Rafah crossing normally sees some 800 people a day leave for Egypt and beyond, and is the only window on the world for the vast majority of Gazans.

Egypt later said it would open the crossing temporarily, but just for three days, mainly to permit travel for humanitarian purposes such as Palestinians seeking medical care abroad, Reuters reported.

Hamas has ruled out suggestions that Palestinian gunmen took part in the Sinai killings and has criticised Cairo for imposing “collective punishment” on the impoverished Mediterranean coastal enclave by sealing the border.

A Hamas delegation was to head to Cairo for security talks later Saturday, officials from the Islamist group said, according to Agence France-Presse.

“A security team from Gaza will leave for several meetings with Egyptian security,” Hamas interior ministry spokesperson Ihab Ghussein told AFP.

He said that the object was “to coordinate completely on all security issues, including border security and events which happened in Sinai and the Rafah border crossing [between Gaza and Egypt].”

Asked if the Hamas delegation would take part in the Egyptian investigation in Sinai, Ghussein said they would not be “directly involved” but would coordinate with Egyptian colleagues.

A Hamas official said that the team would travel to Cairo later on Saturday, but did not say for how long, AFP reported.

Meanwhile, Egyptian military engineers have blocked 120 tunnels used for smuggling to and from the Gaza Strip since the start of operations in the neighbouring Sinai Pensinsula, security officials said on Saturday.

“Tunnel entrances are being demolished every day and the operation will continue until all underground passageways are shut,” one official told AFP.

No less than 12 tunnels were blocked in the past two days on the Egyptian side, the source said, adding that most of the tunnels lie in a four-kilometre stretch of the border.

Until now, the army has not used explosives or water to plug the tunnels, which are also found in residential areas.

Seven homes sitting on top of tunnel exits were levelled and two massive underground passages used to smuggle cars into the Gaza Strip were sealed, security officials said, according to AFP.

Egypt is searching for 120 wanted militants and believes around 1,600 extremists, including foreigners, are hiding out in the Sinai, the official MENA news agency reported last Wednesday.

http://jordantimes.com/egypt-reopens-rafah-crossing-with-gaza-blocks-120-tunnels

Source: JORDAN TIMES

In this November 13, 2010 file photo, Palestinian smugglers bring sheep through a smuggling tunnel from Egypt to the Gaza Strip in the Rafah refugee camp, southern Gaza Strip (AP photo by Eyad Baba)