Egypt's security role in Gaza is becoming a source of concern, reports Dina Ezzat Egypt is coming under increasing pressure from the US and Israel to impose strict security measures on the Rafah-Gaza border to prevent a repeat of the chaotic scenes witnessed in the first days following the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. Then, thousands of Palestinians flooded through the borders, though most were forced to turn back. In the US to participate in the UN General Assembly meetings and to meet high-ranking officials, including US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul-Gheit answered several questions on whether Egypt was up to the task in Gaza, defending Egypt's ability "to live up to the challenge of securing the borders between Egypt and Gaza in a way that would prevent the smuggling of arms or militants who may wish to harm Israeli interests." Sources close to the Abul-Gheit talks said the foreign minister stressed that Egypt is capable of handling the situation along the border but at the same time the international community needed to realise that the havoc of the first few days following the withdrawal occurred due to Israel's reluctance to coordinate its withdrawal with the Palestinian security and the frustration of the Palestinians living in Gaza who had been suppressed by the Israeli occupation for close to four decades. Egyptian ambassadors in Israel and Washington and Egypt's permanent representative to the UN have been giving the same answers to similar questions brought up by officials, congressmen, Knesset members and security generals. Gaza was occupied by Israel following the 1967 War. Before the war it had been manned by Egypt. Today, in accordance with a security arrangement reached by Cairo and Tel Aviv, Egypt is once again responsible for maintaining security in and around Gaza. Egyptian officials told Al-Ahram Weekly that on paper Egypt's responsibility is related to the borders between Rafah and Gaza but in talks that Egyptian and Israeli security officials have been holding the past few months it was made abundantly clear that Egypt has a role in promoting security, in coordination with the Palestinian Authority, within the Strip itself. To achieve this end Egypt delegated a high-level security team to Gaza to prepare for the withdrawal. A key mission of the team has been to train Palestinian security to react to scenarios of unexpected violence and to prevent possible anti-Israeli attacks during or after the withdrawal. The Egyptian security team in Gaza is currently coordinating with Palestinian security and intelligence staff. It has also been conducting intensive talks with representatives of Hamas and Islamic Jihad to secure their commitment to the rules of a truce Cairo helped them sign in February. The talks have faced serious problems, Palestinian sources say. Hamas and Jihad are making it no secret that they are uncomfortable with the situation in Gaza in view of the limited access that Palestinians in Gaza have, either to Egypt or the West Bank. They are also unhappy with the proposed Israeli plans to create a security zone north of Gaza. Moreover, they are concerned with what they say is an accommodating Egyptian reaction to alleged, and what they call, exaggerated Israeli security concerns. Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and for that matter Palestinian Authority figures are certainly not happy with the excessive signs of Arab and Islamic warmth demonstrated towards Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon during his participation in the UN summit last week. Especially alarming to them is a reported Israeli-Jordanian plan to transfer some 100,000 Palestinian refugees from Jordan to Gaza. For their part, Egyptian officials say that the situation in Gaza is difficult but hope that all Palestinian political factions will be cooperative. Egyptian and Palestinian officials are currently working on establishing a ministerial level multi-purpose joint committee that would attend to immediate security arrangements on the borders. It would attend to questions related to the expressed Palestinian request to reconsider the border lines between Rafah and Gaza since some PA members have suggested that the borders have been moved in Egypt's favour. The committee would need to coordinate with Israel's plans on operating the Rafah border that Israel wishes to close for the next six months and to replace it with two other border points to allow for the transport of individuals and commodities. Moreover, the joint Palestinian-Israeli committee would need to issue rules for the crossing of Palestinian and Egyptian individuals across the borders. Economic assistance to the Palestinians in Gaza is also a top priority for the committee. Egypt's involvement in the new situation in Gaza does not end there. It is becoming genuinely concerned by the aggressive tone used by Israeli commentators with close relations to the Israeli government. Some commentators have gone as far as to suggest that Israel might have to prepare for a potential military confrontation with Egypt should Cairo, as they argue, use its new position in and near Gaza to establish new military facts on the ground.
