EGYPT: No more Gazans, please

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Barbed wire, cement and negotiations may not be enough to stop a flood of Palestinians if Hamas decides to again breach its Gaza border with Egypt. The Egyptian government is reportedly sending troop reinforcements to the northern Sinai to prevent a possible replay of January’s chaos when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians crossed into Egypt.

Tension around the border intensified recently when Khalil Al-Hayya, a senior Hamas leader, said: “I expect that what will happen next will be greater than what happened before, not only against the Egyptian border but against all the crossings.�

The Egyptian Foreign Ministry said it was ‘astonished’ by such comments.

Hamas claims that Israel has imposed a siege on Gaza that has left thousands of Palestinians with dwindling fuel and other supplies. Meanwhile, Palestinians militants in Gaza have been firing rockets into Israel and on Wednesday killed two Israelis in a cross-border attack. Egyptian security officials have been negotiating with Hamas leaders to calm the situation.

The last thing Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak needs now is another deluge of Gazans spilling his way. Mubarak’s regime is battling inflation and economic problems that have led to bread lines and anger across the country. Riots broke out in a Nile Delta textile town and activists are calling for a nationwide strike on May 4.

—Jeffrey Fleishman in Cairo