RAFAH: Hamas hauled away metal spikes Egyptian soldiers placed at sections of the Gaza-Egypt border Friday, defying Egyptian attempts to reseal the breached frontier and curb the influx of Gazans.
Hamas blew open the border wall on Jan. 23, ending a seven-month blockade of the Gaza Strip that began after the Islamic group violently wrested control of the territory. Hundreds of thousands of Gazans have been moving in and out of Egyptian border towns since, and in the meantime, Hamas bulldozers have pried open new gaps and blocked Egyptian efforts to narrow existing ones.
Early Friday, Egyptian troops poured cement and laid down metal spikes around various breaches to try to choke off the flow of vehicles through gaps in the 12-kilometer-long border. They also sent dozens of riot police to the area.
The Hamas prime minister in Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh, said his group would not allow the border to be resealed.
The Palestinian people have many options, Haniyeh was quoted as telling the pro-Hamas daily Palestine in an interview published Friday. He did not elaborate.
Shortly after, members of Hamas dragged away metal spikes that had been placed at the main breach. Egyptian soldiers, who have been avoiding confrontation with Hamas, removed the remaining obstacles there. Witnesses also reported that a Hamas bulldozer shoved aside spikes at a gap about 100 meters to the east.
Hamas blew up the border days after Israel, with Egyptian backing, imposed a complete blockade on Gaza in response to a rocket barrage from Gaza on Israeli border towns. The blockade tightened already severe Israeli and Egyptian restrictions on access to the territory that have been in place since Hamas Gaza takeover.
On Friday, about 600 Hamas supporters rallied at the border to demand it remain open. One large banner read: Egypt and Palestine are one people, not two. A protester shouted, Keep the border open.
Sami Abu Zuhri, a senior Hamas hardliner, told the crowd that we will not return to the siege, and accused the Abbas government of working for the interest of Israel.
Some of the protesters jumped over metal barriers into Egypt, raising Hamas flags on the Egyptian side. Dozens of Egyptian border guards watched the scene, but did not intervene.
Gaza s Hamas rulers want a role in running the border with Egypt, a demand rejected this week by Egypt and Hamas rival, moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Egypt and Abbas have proposed returning to an internationally backed arrangement for the Gaza-Egypt border that would shut out Hamas, but grant Israel the final say over operations there. The arrangement was negotiated in 2005, after Israel s pullout from Gaza. However, the border has been closed for long stretches since then, including in response to the Hamas takeover.
Since the border breach, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have rushed into Egypt, shopping and visiting relatives on the other side. Most have returned to Gaza after brief visits to Egyptian towns along the shared border.
In other developments Friday, Hamas released a senior Fatah official, after holding him for nearly seven weeks without charges. Omar Al-Ghoul, an adviser to the prime minister of the West Bank government, Salam Fayyad, was the most senior Fatah official to be detained by Hamas since the Gaza takeover.
Hamas has claimed Al-Ghoul was held for illegal activities, but never provided details.
