European monitors will not return to the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Sinai while Hamas is in control there, but only if Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas's Force 17 "Presidential Guard" regains authority over the crossing, the deputy head of the monitoring force said on Wednesday.
Patrick Delval, the deputy head of EU BAM-Rafah, said at a press briefing that the border crossing had been closed since June 9, four days before the Hamas-Fatah fighting intensified. He said the crossing, with an estimated €5 million worth of equipment, was now in Hamas's hands, but that he had not heard any reports of damage there.
The EU's ambassador to Israel, Ramiro Cibrian, said that the legal basis for the deployment of the EU force to Rafah was the agreement on movement and access from November 2005, which clearly stipulated that the Presidential Guard would control the crossing. Now that Force 17 is no longer there, the terms of the agreement are not being met, making it impossible for the EU force to take up their positions. The 70-man force is in Ashkelon, waiting for further orders.
Odd how the EU team didn’t decided to hunker down in Ramallah rather than Israel. I would have thought the EU team would have more in common with Fatah since both organizations seem quite adapt at running away when things go off the wire.
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