Egypt’s announcement that it will open a key border crossing with the Palestinian Gaza Strip within days sparked concern in Israel on Friday and revealed how the upheaval in the Arab world is shifting the Middle East conflict.
Under former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, the country restricted the movement of people and goods through the Rafah crossing in keeping with a blockade it imposed on Gaza along with Israel. The restrictions were aimed at weakening the Hamas militants who rule the Gaza Strip, and whom both Egypt and Israel saw, until recently, as a common enemy.
After Mubarak’s ouster in February by a popular uprising, Egypt’s new transitional Cabinet and ruling military council are taking a cooler line toward Israel and the US. Egypt has also been warming its ties with Israel’s enemies, chiefly Hamas and its main backer, Iran.
Egypt’s new foreign minister, Nabil al-Araby, said on Thursday that the closure was about to end, calling the decision to close the crossing “a disgusting matter” in an interview with the Arab satellite channel al-Jazeera.
Al-Araby said the crossing would be opened “in the coming days.”
Israeli officials would not comment publicly on Friday, but Israel is “troubled by recent developments in Egypt,” an Israeli government official said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because there had been no official comment.
Israel views the Gaza blockade as essential to minimizing the flow of weaponry and militants into the territory, where Palestinian squads regularly launch rockets at Israeli towns, and to pressuring Hamas.
The decision appeared linked to the surprise announcement one day earlier that the two rival Palestinian factions, Hamas and Fatah, had signed a reconciliation agreement brokered by Egypt. The deal is scheduled to be signed on Wednesday in Cairo, Palestinian Authority spokesman Nabil Abu Rdeneh said on Friday. It is to lead the way to a transitional unity government and elections.
That announcement was also greeted with dismay in Israel, which said it ruled out any chance of peace talks with a Palestinian government that includes the Hamas militants. Hamas, which rejects peace talks and is committed to Israel’s destruction, is considered a terrorist organization by Israel, the US, the EU and others.
The announcement on the border crossing also appeared to reflect a responsiveness by Egypt’s new military rulers to street sentiment hostile to Israel and the US. A recent poll showed more than half of Egyptians favor an annulment of the 1979 peace treaty with Israel.
The number of travelers currently crossing through Rafah is limited to approximately 300 a day and is subject to Egyptian security clearance that is often withdrawn. The other crossings available to Gaza’s 1.5 million people are with Israel and are closed with few exceptions, such as emergency medical cases. Israel allows goods into Gaza with restrictions on construction materials it says could be used by militants.
In Washington, Jake Sullivan, the US Department of State’s director of policy planning, said the US would continue to work with Egyptian authorities on ensuring that weaponry and other material cannot cross the Gaza border. He said he could not comment on the changes in Egyptian policy.
The Israeli official said on Friday that Israel was concerned about calls in Egypt for the abrogation of the three-decade-old peace agreement between the countries, by “the rapprochement between Egypt and Iran, and by the upgrading of the relations between Egypt and Hamas.”
Hamas hailed the move. Hamas spokesman Taher Nunu said it “has received positive signals from Egypt about the mechanism that Egypt is going to adopt in the terminal,” and has been informed by the Egyptians that “all future progress on Egypt’s part is going to serve the interests of the people of Gaza.”
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese