Rafah: Hamas breached the Gaza-Egypt border again, despite attempts by Egyptian troops to seal it, and said they would not allow the border to be closed again.

Hundreds of Hamas supporters protested on the breached Gaza-Egypt border yesterday, demanding that it remain open, while Egyptian troops poured cement and laid down metal spikes in a new attempt to halt the influx of Gazans.

Gaza's Hamas rulers want a role in running the border with Egypt, a demand rejected this week by Egypt and Hamas' rival, moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
It remains unclear whether Hamas will use force to keep the border open.

The Hamas prime minister in Gaza, Esmail Haniya, said he would not allow the border to be resealed.

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"The Palestinian people have many options," Haniya was quoted as telling the pro-Hamas daily Palestine in an interview yesterday. He did not elaborate.

The Egypt-Hamas standoff began on January 23, when Hamas-allied militants toppled the border wall with a series of explosions. Since then, Hamas militants using bulldozers stopped several attempts by Egypt to reseal the frontier.

The border breach came several days after Israel had imposed a complete blockade on Gaza, with Egyptian backing, in response to a rocket barrage from Gaza on Israeli border towns.

For the past seven months, since Hamas' takeover of Gaza, Israel and Egypt have severely restricted access to the territory.

Yesterday, about 600 Hamas supporters staged a rally 100 metres from the nearest Egyptian border post.

One large banner read: "Egypt and Palestine are one people, not two." A protester shouted, "Keep the border open." Sami Abu Zuhri, a senior Hamas hardliner, told the crowd that "we will not return to the siege," and accused the Abbas government of working for the interest of Israel.

Some protesters jumped over barriers into Egypt, raising Hamas flags on the Egyptian side. Egyptian border guards watched the scene, but did not intervene.

Egypt and Abbas have proposed returning to an internationally backed arrangement for the Gaza-Egypt border that would shut out Hamas, but grant Israel the final say over operations there.

The arrangement was negotiated in 2005, after Israel's pullout from Gaza.

However, the border has been closed for long stretches since then, including in response to the Hamas takeover.

Egyptian guards closed openings in the 12-km-long border, pouring cement to fill gaps in a low wall, and laying metal spikes on the ground to narrow the largest passage.

Motorists stopped crossing, but a few Gazans on foot or riding carts trickled into Egypt.