Ismail Haniyeh makes first trip to Cairo in three years, says ties will witness a ‘paradigm shift’
01/28/2017
The Rafah crossing between Egypt and the Hamas-run Gaza Strip reopened Saturday as Cairo and the Islamist organization hailed an improvement in long-tense ties.
Israel radio said the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt reopened on Saturday for three days, the first time it has been open this year.
Hamas called the a rare visit by Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh to Cairo, the first visit by the group’s top leader in over three years, “successful,” according to Egypt’s state-run news agency.
Hebrew Language media quoted Egyptian officials as saying that the visit represents a desire by both sides to rebuild trust after tension since the 2013 military ouster of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi, who hails from the Muslim Brotherhood group, Hamas’ mother movement. Authorities accused the group of supporting militants to carry out attacks in Egypt.
Haniyeh and his delegation departed Egypt to return to Gaza after talks with the Egypt’s security and political authorities, including intelligence chief Khaled Fawzy, Egypt’s MENA reported. The two sides discussed Israel’s blockade of Gaza, Palestinian reconciliation and the lingering power outage in the strip.
The agency quoted Hamas’ statement as saying the talks will have “positive results” on the situation in Gaza. It said that the delegation stressed that it doesn’t interfere in Egypt’s internal affairs.
“The Egyptian brothers have presented a comprehensive vision on all issues … such vision will have positive results on the Egyptian and the Palestinian people,” it said.
The agency gave no further details on future arrangements. But Haniyah posted on his Twitter saying after arriving in Gaza that the relations with Egypt will witness “paradigm shifts.”
For most of the past decade, Egypt has been a quiet partner with Israel in the blockade on Hamas-ruled Gaza, stifling the economy and largely blocking its 2 million people from moving in and out of the territory.