Rafah: Egyptian riot police and armored vehicles restricted Gaza motorists to a small border area of Egypt today, in the second attempt in two days to restore some control over the chaotic frontier which was breached by Hamas militants earlier in the week.

In the West Bank, meanwhile, moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas stuck to his tough conditions for resuming contacts with Gaza's Hamas rulers, dimming prospects for Egypt's proposal to have the two Palestinian rivals come to Cairo for talks on resolving the border crisis. Earlier, Hamas had accepted Egypt's proposal, and Hamas hardliner Sami Abu Zuhri accused Abbas of trying to bypass Hamas. "His statements are a rejection of the Egyptian initiative," Abu Zuhri said of Abbas.

Abbas has said, and reiterated today, that he would only talk to Hamas if it retreats from its violent June takeover of Gaza, something Hamas is unlikely to do. Abbas renewed his offer of deploying his forces at the Gaza crossings, as a way of ending the closure of Gaza by Israel and Egypt. On the Gaza-Egypt border, traffic of cars and pedestrians remained heavy today, four days after Hamas militants blew down the border wall, sending hundreds of thousands of Gazans rushing into Egypt.

In an attempt to restore some control, Egyptian armored vehicles blocked the main street of the Egyptian border town of Rafah, causing a snarled traffic jam of honking cars filled with Gazans shopping for fuel, food and consumer products. Earlier today, dozens of riot police had formed human chains to block the two passages cut through the breached border, before once again giving up and allowing the cars to cross into the Egyptian side of the divided town.

Source : PTI