Hamas: Palestinians will never allow the return of old conditions at Rafah

Hamas: Palestinians will never allow the return of old conditions at Rafah

The Hamas Movement has highlighted that the Palestinian people will never allow the return of the old conditions at the Rafah boarder crossing or let Israel regain its control over it whatever the cost.


In a press conference on Monday night, Dr. Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas spokesman, stated that Hamas realizes that there are pressures and moves being made by the American administration along with the Israeli occupation and the PA leadership to restore the dominance of Israel over the Rafah crossing.


Dr. Abu Zuhri pointed out that Hamas received an invitation to visit Cairo to discuss the new arrangements for the management of the crossing, adding that there is no room for the return of the old agreement which legally and officially expired and reflected negatively on the Palestinian people.


“Our position is clear; we want a genuine Palestinian-Egyptian crossing, and regarding the mechanisms we will be discussing them in Cairo, but if there is someone thinking otherwise, he should not bother himself or us because there is no way to go back,” the Hamas spokesman underscored.

Egypt announced that it wants the PA leadership to run the Rafah crossing; whereas, the EU agreed to study the possibility of returning its monitors to the crossing if the PA, Egypt and Israel approved that.


In the same context, Mohammed Abed, the legal advisor to premier Ismail Haneyya, considered that the Palestinian people are not bound by the Rafah crossing agreement which was concluded by the PA with the Israeli occupation as long as it was not passed by their legitimate institution the PLC.


For his part, Sheikh Khaled Al-Batesh, a prominent Islamic Jihad leader, called for making the Rafah crossing fully under the Palestinian-Egyptian sovereignty without interference or presence of any European or Israeli party in order for the Palestinian people to move without any restrictions.


Batesh added that the unjust agreement of the crossings as well as the Paris economic agreement kept the Palestinian people at the mercy of the Israeli occupation and helped Israel to persist in its siege.


In another context, the US-based Christian Science Monitor newspaper quoted Monday political analysts as saying that Hamas was not only able to break its natural isolation, but also it worked out ways to solve the crisis; besides, it is in a stronger negotiating position on several fronts.