Mohammed Mar'i Saudi Gazette RAMALLAH — The Egyptian authorities Saturday allowed the entry of building materials and equipments for the Qatar financed projects into Gaza Strip through the Rafah Crossing after two-day stop. Maher Abu Sabheh, Hamas's director of the crossings, said that 20 trucks loaded with construction materials from Qatar for the reconstruction of residential neighborhoods and road construction in the Gaza Strip entered the Palestinian territory after Egypt and Qatar settled the issue of border-crossing fees. Abu Sabheh said that the entry of the materials resumed after the Qatar's officials agreed to pay the border-crossing fees to the Egyptian authorities. The entry of building materials into Gaza Strip stopped on Thursday after the Qatar's officials refused to pay 100 Egyptian pounds (about $16 dollars) per truck. The Palestinian official said that 174 trucks loaded with cement, iron, gravel and some equipment entered through Rafah since Egypt allowed the entry of the materials via the Rafah crossing last Saturday. Qatar's Emir Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani and his wife Sheikha Mozah traveled from Egypt to Gaza in October, a political move to break Israel's blockade on Gaza. The Emir declared a rebilding project which included a housing complex, a hospital and the development of three main roads. Qatar has allocated US 400 million for the project. The Hamas government of Ismail Haniyeh is preventing the return of European monitors to the Rafah border crossing, despite a 2005 agreement between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA) requiring their presence at the border. Abu Sabheh said last week that “there is no need for their return, since they have forsaken the sick who died at the Rafah crossing and were in need of their intervention.” He added that the Europeans have asked to return to Rafah following the ceasefire agreement reached between Israel and Hamas on November 21, which ended the eight day Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip. The European Union Border Assistance Mission in Rafah (EUBAM Rafah) began operating at the Rafah crossing in November 2005, following Israel's disengagement from the Gaza Strip, as part of the Agreement on Movement and Access signed between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. Under the agreement, EU monitors on the ground were complemented by a system of surveillance cameras, which broadcast the activity at the border to an Israeli control center at the Kerem Shalom border crossing. EUBAM was active at the Rafah crossing until June 2007, when Hamas violently took control of the Gaza Strip, routing security forces of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and ousting his Fatah movement from the area. Today, EUBAM operates out of an office near Tel Aviv but, according to its website, it is “ready to re-engage at very short notice.” Israel imposed an economic siege on the Gaza Strip in June 2006 when Hamas-led armed groups kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in a cross border raid near the enclave. Israel tightened the siege in June 2007, when Hamas routed security forces of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and ousted his Fatah movement from the area.
