CAIRO: Egypt allowed the return of some 100 Hamas loyalists stranded in Egypt since last June back into Gaza through a small crossing for military vehicles in Rafah early Saturday.
The Hamas members crossed at round 3 am on Saturday, according to the Tagammu party representative in North Sinai Alaa Al-Kashef who told Daily News Egypt that some of the people being transported had maintained contact with him till they crossed the border.
Al-Kashef said that some of the Hamas members residing in Al-Arish, about 20 km from Rafah on the border with Gaza, called him at around 1:30 am and informed him they were told to get into buses that would transport them back to Gaza through a land crossing in Rafah.
This was not the main Rafah terminal, which has been closed since clashes between Hamas and Fatah in Gaza kicked off last June, but a smaller Israeli-made crossing for armored vehicles to leave and enter Gaza.
Neither Egypt nor Hamas have commented on the return or the decision behind it but Al-Kashef believes that the deal was carried out by Egyptian intelligence, and an intelligence communications officer was the one who oversaw the crossing.
“The Hamas loyalists were in serious trouble here in Egypt, and they went on several strikes to protest their inability to return, Al-Kashef said. “They were sort of semi-incarcerated here.
There are still around another 200 Hamas loyalists on the Egyptian side of the border, according to Al-Kashef, who said that the governor of North Sinai kicked them out of the camp where they were staying.
Instead they rented an apartment building, he continued, while others stayed at hotels, while a few are in Rafah. “It is the less dangerous ones who were allowed to leave, Al-Kashef said.
Hamas spokesman Taher El-Nunu told AFP, “There was an accord between the [Hamas] government of Ismail Haniyah and the Egyptian side, which allowed these people to re-enter.
“Numerous people who came back belong to Hamas, he added.
The return of Hamas loyalists to Gaza will upset Fatah as well as Israel and Western countries.
Fatah leader and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas visited Cairo Sunday to meet with President Hosni Mubarak. Officially their discussions centered on an upcoming US-sponsored peace conference in November and the ambiguities that have preceded it.
Additionally, Al-Kashef told Daily News Egypt that there are 87 Palestinians in North Sinai from the Bakr family in Gaza who are all affiliated with Fatah and escaped Gaza when it fell to Hamas.
Fatah is supposed to be financing their relocation to the Sixth of October City, said Al-Kashef.
The Hamas loyalists transported over the border last weekend included Mushir Al-Masri, a Hamas lawmaker, and other members who were sent for training in Islamic countries before the June takeover, according to a SAPA-AP report.
Cameramen and photographers who made it to the scene had their film confiscated by Hamas security officials, said the same report.
According to Reuters, Hamas sources said that a deal had been struck between Egypt and Hamas for the return of the prisoners. Additionally, the Gaza group the Popular Resistance Committee also took part in talks with Egypt over the reopening of the crossing.
Although most of the 6,000 Palestinians that were stranded in Egypt because of the outbreak of violence in Gaza eventually returned through Al-Oja crossing into Israel and then the Eretz crossing into the Strip, Hamas loyalists refused to return that way out of fear of being incarcerated by Israeli forces.
The Rafah terminal, which is the only Gaza crossing that bypasses Israel, has been closed since June because of the absence of the EU monitors that a tri-nation agreement stipulates must be present to police the crossing.
