http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/02/world/middleeast/02gaza.html

June 1, 2011

Open Border at Gaza Is Not So Open, Palestinians Find

By FARES AKRAM

GAZA -- Days after Egypt, with great fanfare, opened its border permanently with Gaza, new restrictions have been imposed on Palestinians who want to cross, and the area's Hamas rulers spoke on Wednesday with frustration and anger.

Only three buses, carrying a total of 150 passengers, entered the Egyptian hall at the Rafah crossing on Wednesday, while five others remained stuck on the Palestinian side, Hamas officials said two hours before closing.

"Since Tuesday, we are witnessing complications that we cannot understand," said Salama Baraka, director of the crossing, who blamed "the Egyptian side for the nearly paralyzed movement of travelers." Local reports said that Hamas was considering shutting the border in protest.

On Saturday, the new Egyptian government said it was lifting restrictions that had sharply limited entry from Gaza in the past four years after Israel, with Egyptian cooperation, imposed a closing to pressure Hamas. The new rules said men over 40, children and all women could travel from Gaza through Egypt without prior arrangement.

But Egypt has been returning dozens of travelers, Hamas officials say.

Ghazi Hamad, a Hamas deputy foreign minister, said that Hamas authorities had contacted the Egyptians for clarification. "On the ground, we face some difficulties," he said.

Maan, a Palestinian news agency, quoted an Egyptian official as saying that Hamas was sending in ineligible people, including some involved in smuggling, through tunnels under Gaza's southern borders with Sinai.

Sari Bashi, executive director of Gisha, an Israeli human rights group focused on freedom of movement for Palestinians, said the Egyptians had told Hamas on Tuesday that crossings would be limited to 400 a day and that everyone, including women and children, now needed to clear their names a day in advance.

In recent months, the daily average of those leaving Gaza through Rafah was 300. Before the Hamas takeover of Gaza, under a system that included European monitors from November 2005 to June 2006, about 660 people moved into Egypt every day, according to Gisha.

Israel first restricted crossing at Rafah in 2006 and goods from Israel when Hamas abducted an Israeli soldier near Gaza. A year later, after Hamas won elections, it took full control of Gaza.

Last year, after Israeli commandos killed nine activists on a Turkish flotilla trying to break Israel's siege of Gaza, Egypt opened Rafah on a more regular basis and Israel began allowing a much larger range of goods from Israel into Gaza.

Ethan Bronner contributed reporting from Jerusalem.