Hamas, PA continue to blame each other for closure of Rafah crossing

For the past week, the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt has been closed.

While it had been closed for much of the past six years, last May it was opened as Hamas allowed the Palestinian Authority to man the crossing. Egypt severely restricted who could travel through the crossings but several thousand were allowed to cross in both directions monthly.

Then on January 9, the PA announced that it will stop its presence at the crossing, ostensibly because their employees were being harassed and arrested by Hamas. However, Palestinian Authority Minister of Civil Affairs Hussein Al Sheikh said in an interview that the closure was part of the PA's attempts to pressure Hamas into surrendering in their longstanding dispute.

It should be noted that Egypt can open the crossing any time it wants, but at this time it refuses to open it unless the Palestinian Authority is there. In the past Egypt did open the crossing sporadically to traffic when Hamas controlled the crossing, and during the time the Muslim Brotherhood controlled Egypt the crossing was open often. On Sunday, Egypt did allow crossing one way into Gaza, but not out, so PA presence is certainly not necessary for the border to be opened.

As usual, the news story is of little interest to international media, because Palestinian suffering from infighting is not nearly as interesting to the world as when Israel can be blamed.

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