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EU Observers Ready to Return to Gaza

If the Palestinians guarantee the safety of the European Union observers, they will be returned to the Rafahterminal on the crossing between Gaza and Egypt, the EU said.
 
“The EUis willing to send its observers back if the Palestinian Authority will guarantee their personal security,” a diplomat said after EU foreign ministers discussed the issue in Brusselsyesterday.
 
However, theEU will only send its monitors back to the border crossing if it is under the auspices of P.A. chairman, Mahmoud ‘Abbas, and providing assurances are given that they would not be at risk from Hamas,the diplomat added.

EU monitors were deployed at Rafah under a deal between Egypt and Israel in 2005 aimed at allaying the Jewish state’s concerns about arms entering Gaza when it withdrew its troops from the costal enclave.

In June 2007, following the infighting between Hamas and Fatah, resulting in the Hamas takeover from Fatah in the Gaza Strip, the European observers left the terminal when Israel decided to close it.

Still, a redeployment of the E.U. monitors seems remote for the time being, as Egyptian and Hamasforcesare still workingto patch up the frontier barrier,which Hamas militants demolished last week.

The breach of the barrier allowed hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to crossinto Egypt to stock up on supplies.

The EU and other international powers have voiced concern over the welfare of people in Gaza under the Israeli blockade that came in retaliation to continual rocket fire from Gaza.

A Hamas source said the breaches in the wall would remain closed tomorrow provided talks in Cairo with Egyptian officials “prove positive” by giving it a future say about the border.

Meanwhile, ‘Abbas, who won Arab League backing for a proposal to send his own forces to police and keep Gaza’s borders open, is expected in Cairo tomorrowto try to reach a deal with Egypt over reopening the Rafah terminal.

On Sunday, foreign ministers of the Arab League issued a statement reiterating the need torun the Rafah crossing based on the 2005 agreement in order to end the crisis inthe Gaza Strip.