Egypt closes Gaza border fearing Israeli attacks

Egypt on Sunday closed its Rafah crossing point with the Gaza Strip, fearing fresh Israeli attacks on the smuggling tunnels as Hamas proposed a one-year ceasefire instead of Israel’s 18-months suggestion.

Egyptian authorities have evacuated the Rafah border crossing into the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, acting on reports of a possible Israeli air strike on the Palestinian side of the crossing, Egyptian security sources said on Sunday.

Security sources and witnesses speaking on condition of anonymity said authorities had carried out a sudden and rapid evacuation of the crossing area, removing staff and ambulances from the vicinity of the gates that control access to the crossing.

Israel has proposed to Egyptian mediators an 18-month ceasefire with Hamas, but the Islamist group that controls Gaza said it wants a one-year ceasefire, a Hamas official said. The ceasefire followed the 22-day offensive that left more than 1,300 Palestinians and 13 Israelis dead.

One year not 18 months

"Hamas listened to the Israeli proposal presented by (Israeli Defense Ministry official) Amos Gilad, and with it a proposal for a ceasefire for a year and a half, but Hamas presented a counterproposal of one year only," Ayman Taha told reporters in Cairo after talks with Egyptian intelligence officials.

Taha reiterated the group's calls for a lifting of the blockade imposed on the impoverished and devastated Gaza Strip by Israel and Egypt.

"It (Hamas) called for a complete lifting of the blockade and an opening of all the crossings," Taha said.

Hamas proposed to Egyptian mediators that European and Turkish monitors be present at the border crossings, but rejected the presence of Israeli monitors, saying Israeli monitoring was "a large part of the problem," according to Taha.

Asked if Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's forces would be present at the crossings, Taha said: "Hamas is the existing government in Gaza."

Hamas listened to the Israeli proposal presented by Amos Gilad, and with it a proposal for a ceasefire for a year and a half, but Hamas presented a counterproposal of one year only,

Hamas spokesman Ayman Taha

Continuing armament

In the meantime, a senior Hamas official earlier said the Palestinian Islamist movement will continue to arm its fighters in the war-battered Gaza Strip as well as on the West Bank.

"We never failed to get arms into Gaza even during the (Israeli) war and under the bombardment," the Hamas representative in Beirut, Osama Hamdan, told a rally in the Lebanese capital.

"We have the right to hold weapons. We will continue to get arms into Gaza and the West Bank ... Nobody should think that we will surrender to any measures," he said.

"Warplanes, aircraft carriers and satellite technology will not be able to monitor the entry of weapons through Gaza's tunnels," Hamdan said.

"Things might get difficult, but we will do whatever it takes to continue our resistance against Israel."

Egypt's intelligence chief Omar Suleiman, pointman for Palestinian-Israeli affairs, met separately on several occasions with Hamas and Israeli officials during the Israeli war on Gaza as he sought acceptance of an Egyptian plan to end the onslaught.

Things might get difficult, but we will do whatever it takes to continue our resistance against Israel

Osama Hamdan, Hamas

Counter-smuggling measures

Israel said it halted the fighting after securing commitments from the United States, European powers and Egypt to crack down on the flow of arms to the Hamas-ruled enclave.

Israel signed an agreement with the U.S. to prevent Hamas from smuggling weapons.

Under the agreement, the U.S. will reportedly provide "logistical and technical assistance, train and equip regional security forces in counter-smuggling tactics."

Cairo has repeatedly denied that arms have been smuggled into Gaza through a network of tunnels linking Egypt to the impoverished Palestinian enclave, saying the arms were being delivered by sea, an account disputed by Israel.

France said on Friday it would send a frigate to patrol international waters off the coast of the Gaza Strip as part of efforts to consolidate the ceasefire by preventing arms trafficking by sea.

"I reassure you that from the first day of the ceasefire the resistance began to restore what it had lost and to develop what it (already) had," Hamdan added.

Egypt is also seeking to end a protracted feud between Hamas and the Fatah faction of secular Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas, which sharpened after the Hamas seized control of Gaza in deadly street fighting in June 2007.

Several Palestinian faction leaders are due in Cairo this week, including veteran Nayef Hawatmeh of the Damascus-based Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, for reconciliation talks, according to Egypt's state MENA news agency.

I reassure you that from the first day of the ceasefire the resistance began to restore what it had lost and to develop what it (already) had

Osama Hamdan, Hamas