Abbas offers Gaza border control to Hamas

GAZA (Reuters) – Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has
offered to hand control of the Gaza Strip’s border with Egypt
to the new government led by the militant group Hamas,
officials said on Sunday.

Last Tuesday, special forces loyal to Abbas assumed control
of the crossing, a move that heightened tensions between the
president and Hamas, which took office on March 29.

“The discussions are still going on. Until now Hamas has
not responded (to the offer),” an aide to Abbas in the West
Bank city of Ramallah told Reuters.

An official from Abbas’s Fatah movement in Gaza said the
president had sent a letter to Hamas Prime Minister Ismail
Haniyeh which said border control would pass to Hamas. The
official did not give a timeframe.

“The Hamas government will be held responsible if the
crossing is blocked by Israel or if the European monitors take
a decision to withdraw,” the official said.

A Hamas source said a letter had been sent to Haniyeh’s
office.

European Union monitors working at the Rafah border
crossing under a U.S.-brokered deal to assuage Israeli fears
that foreign fighters and weapons could reach Gaza had
previously said they were happy to see forces at the border
answering directly to Abbas.

Abbas had been under international and Israeli pressure to
take control of the Palestinian-run border away from the
Hamas-led Interior Ministry after the group’s crushing
electoral win against the long-dominant Fatah in January.

Hamas is sworn to Israel’s destruction but has largely
abided by a year-old truce with the Jewish state.

Since taking office, the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority
has been under intense financial and diplomatic pressure from
Israel, the United States and the EU.