Pat Dollard | Young Americans

RAFAH, Egypt - A smattering of Hamas-affiliated security forces, many of them bearded and dressed in blue camouflage uniforms, fanned out on both sides of the breached Gaza-Egypt border Sunday to jointly police the crossing with Egyptian guards.

Though only about a dozen Hamas forces took up positions, it was their first significant action on the Egyptian side of the border in the five days since Palestinian militants blasted through the partition. Since then, tens of thousands of Gazans have flooded into Egypt to buy food, fuel and other goods made scarce by an Israeli closure of the territory.

Hamas won Palestinian parliamentary elections in 2006 and forcibly seized control of Gaza from the rival Fatah faction in June. But the Islamic militant group had no role in controlling Gaza’s border crossings before the breach on Wednesday.

Now, Hamas is hoping to change that.

The temporary cooperation appeared to be between low-level security guards on the ground, and not indicative of any change in policy by Hamas or the Egyptian government, which are still far apart on the question of future control of the border.

Egypt wants to restore an arrangement whereby the border was controlled jointly by the Palestinian Authority headed by Fatah, Israel, and European monitors. Hamas rejects the old system and is pushing for a new one where it has a role.

Hundreds of Egyptian forces have been deployed around the border for several days, and some guards have also crossed briefly into Gaza. The Egyptians have been struggling to re-establish control along the border. But for the fifth straight day, Palestinians moved unimpeded back and forth across the frontier.

The small group of Hamas forces appeared to be coordinating efforts to restore order at the border with their Egyptian counterparts, jointly directing traffic and manning checkpoints. Both Hamas and the Egyptians were urging Gaza motorists to go back home.

Streets on the Egyptian side of the town of Rafah, which was divided in half by the border, were still jammed with people bargaining for gasoline, water bottles, car batteries, carpets and other supplies.

A rare rainstorm turned dusty thoroughfares into sludge and some shops were closed, either because of bad weather or because supplies had run low.

Checkpoints restricted the flow of Egyptian cars and trucks toward Rafah, limiting the flow of goods to restock shelves.

Gasoline vendors were still filling jerry cans to take back to Gaza.

“I can afford to get wet, but I can’t afford to go hungry,” said Gazan Adel Abdullah Moussa, dripping wet in the rain and carrying a yellow gas can in one hand and his year-old baby in the other.

The old joint border arrangement for Gaza was brokered by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in 2005—nearly two years before Hamas took over the area and ousted the Palestinian Authority of moderate President Mahmoud Abbas, who heads Fatah.

“We have to commit to the standing international agreement,” Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit told reporters Sunday after meeting with Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad in Cairo.

But Hamas wants a new border security scheme.

“This agreement has become part of past history, and the Palestinian people will not accept turning back to the old procedure,” said Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas spokesman in Gaza City.

Hamas says its main objection to the old system is that Israel uses cameras and computers to track everyone who passes in and out of Gaza, even though the Jewish state pulled its troops and settlers out of the strip in 2005.

“We don’t accept a continued Israeli veto on the movement, the exit and entry through Rafah,” Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said.

While it does not say so publicly, Hamas could be seeking to assume the Palestinian Authority’s share of responsibility for the border.

But that idea will likely meet with stiff resistance from Israel, Egypt and the international community, which have largely isolated Hamas over its refusal to recognize Israel’s right to exist and to renounce militancy.

Israel closed its border with Gaza last week and cut off fuel shipments following intensified rocket barrages from the territory.

Both Egypt and Israel restricted the movement of people and goods in and out of Gaza after Hamas won the election in 2006 and further tightened the closure after the group seized control of the area by force from Fatah in June.

Israel has expressed growing concern about the possible influx of Palestinian militants and weapons into areas of Egypt that border Israel.

Still, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert promised Abbas on Sunday that Israel would not let a humanitarian crisis develop in Gaza.

(AP)