.bmp)
.bmp)
EL-ARISH, Egypt-Egypt stopped a senior Hamas official from carrying nine million dollars and two million euros in cash through the Rafah bordering crossing into Gaza on Thursday, a security official told AFP.Border officials had held up a six-member delegation returning from truce talks in Cairo after insisting on searching their bags.The officials allowed five members to cross, but prevented Gaza-based Hamas spokesman Ayman Taha, who was carrying the cash, from entering Gaza with the money.After contacting the finance ministry, security officials accompanied Taha to a bank in nearby El-Arish, where he deposited the money in account before returning to Gaza, the official said.Israel's devastating 22-day offensive on Gaza ended with unilateral ceasefires on January 18.The war killed at least 1,330 Palestinians and 13 Israelis and destroyed or damaged 14,000 homes, 68 government buildings and 31 structures used by non-government groups, the UN Development Programme has said.During the conflict, Egypt allowed aid, medical supplies and some doctors and journalists into Gaza.On Tuesday, Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad urged Israel to allow cash into the besieged enclave to ease its liquidity crisis."We are trying to get cash in but Israeli authorities haven't authorised it so far," Fayyad told journalists in the West Bank town of Ramallah.Hamas has said it plans to distribute 4,000 euros (5,200 dollars) to each family whose home was destroyed and 1,000 euros (1,300 dollars)for each family member killed in the onslaught.After winning parliamentary elections in 2006, Hamas officials crossed into Gaza with cash several times, and this was the first to be intercepted since Hamas seized Gaza from rivals Fatah 18 months ago, the official said.In December 2006, Hamas prime minister Ismail Haniya was forced to leave 35 million dollars at the Egyptian side of Rafah. The money was then transferred to a Palestinian Authority account.On Thursday, Egypt closed the Rafah crossing to all but exceptional cases."No humanitarian, media or medical delegations will be allowed through, nor will medical aid deliveries be permitted," a border official told AFP, while "foreign delegations" who entered Gaza from Egypt would be allowed to leave.Egypt has been mediating a lasting truce over the territory that would satisfy Israel's demand for an end to smuggling through tunnels from Egypt and Hamas's demand for the reopening of Gaza's borders.Egypt has refused to permanently open the crossing in the absence of EU monitors and representatives of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas after Hamas ousted his forces from the territory.Israel, which controls all crossings except Rafah, has since kept the densely populated Gaza closed to all but essential supplies to put pressure on Hamas, which it labels as a terrorist organisation.Cairo had proposed Thursday as the starting date for a long-term truce, with Hamas saying it would send a delegation back to Cairo on Saturday to give its "final" response to Egypt's proposal.http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090205/wl_mideast_afp/mideastgazaconflictegyptborder_20090205194549;_ylt=AuQSm0W8.2qpOzMMvWUgjqeQOrgF
As in the days of Noah...
