Egypt has told the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian factions that the Palestinian dialogue will start on Feb. 25, a Palestinian official source said. On the other hand, an Egyptian security official said yesterday that the authorities sent hundreds of police forces to the border with the Gaza Strip for fear that Palestinian protesters might cross the border with Sinai. 400 Egyptian anti-riot soldiers were deployed on the border area as a precautionary measure.
For his part, Mahmoud al-Zahar, a Hamas leader, said he returned to Cairo on Saturday to continue talking with the Egyptian officials on the truce deal with Israel in the Gaza Strip. Egyptian well-informed sources said al-Zahar was expected to meet with the chief of Egyptian intelligence Omar Suleiman within hours. Within the framework of Egypt's attempt to alleviate the suffering of the Palestinian people, the Rafah crossing will be opened today and tomorrow so that stranded Palestinians and humanitarian cases may cross from the Gaza Strip into Egypt and vice versa. In addition, it will be possible to cross the border for Palestinian patients who have completed their treatment in Egypt and in other countries as well as for the doctors, journalists and delegations that have been in Gaza since December 27.
An Egyptian official source said that Palestinian students studying in Egypt and other countries would be allowed to cross the border provided that they have papers proving they are actually students. The holders of residence permits in Egypt and other countries will be also allowed to cross. The Arab League said yesterday that two international committees would head to the Gaza Strip during the next few hours. Hisham Youssef, Director of the UN Secretary General's Office, said in a press release that the first committee would document the crimes committed by the Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip during the recent operations and would prepare a detailed report on the Israeli violations of international laws in order to start taking the necessary legal steps against Israeli officials.
The committee will be chaired by international law expert John Dugard. It will be joined by Arab legal experts, the Arab League and a Palestinian human rights organization, Youssef said.
