WarSclerotic

For ceasefire, Abbas proposes PA forces along Gaza-Egypt border

Israel understood not to oppose idea;

PA president to meet Sissi and Mashaal Thursday, also suggests PA deploys at Erez crossing with Israel, to enable lifting of security blockade

By Avi Issacharoff July 16, 2014, 1:36 pm

via For ceasefire, Abbas proposes PA forces along Gaza-Egypt border | The Times of Israel.

In its efforts to help arrange an Israel-Hamas ceasefire, the Palestinian Authority is set to propose to Egypt that it open the Rafah border crossing under the supervision of PA security forces, and deploy PA forces along the Philadelphi Corridor between Gaza and Egypt.

Israel does not oppose the idea of PA forces at Rafah, Israeli sources said.

Hamas has demanded the reopening of the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt as one of its key demands for an end to the current conflict. Tuesday’s Egyptian ceasefire proposal — accepted by Israel but rejected by Hamas — spoke only vaguely about reopening border crossings.

Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas is set to meet in Cairo on Thursday with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, and will present a ceasefire proposal that includes the Rafah provision, Palestinian sources told The Times of Israel on Wednesday. Abbas is also to meet Thursday, in Egypt or Turkey, with the head of the Hamas political bureau, Khaled Mashaal, and discuss ceasefire terms with him.

Abbas arrived in Cairo on Wednesday with a group of senior advisers and some of the heads of PA security forces. He is set to meet with Arab League representatives, and has held talks with Middle East Quartet representative Tony Blair, who is also serving as an adviser to el-Sissi.

According to Abbas’s proposal, PA forces loyal to him would deploy not only at the Rafah crossing, but all the way along the Philadelphi Corridor, the 14-kilometer stretch of Gaza-Egyptian border territory. The PA has set up a command force that would transfer from the West Bank to Gaza to oversee the hundreds of personnel who would deploy.

The PA intends to build that wider Gaza force from the ranks of PA Presidential Guard and National Security members who live in Gaza, are paid by Ramallah, but have had nothing to do since Abbas’s forces were overthrown by Hamas in the 2007 coup in which the Islamist group seized power in the Strip. These potential recruits have already been informed of what may be ahead of them.

Egypt made plain last month that it was not prepared to reopen the Rafah crossing unless forces loyal to Abbas were stationed there and along the border.

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