CAIRO: Foreigners will now need to pre-apply for visas for travel to Gaza, due to new restrictions imposed by Hamas' Prime Minister Ismael Haniyeh. Starting on Tuesday, foreigners must apply online or through a local sponsor a week before entry to Gaza in order to obtain a month-long visa. According to Hamas' official homepage, the restriction is made to secure traveler security, and mainly applys NGO workers and activists. A specific set of procedures is still to be determined for journalists wishing to enter the area. The rules will enable Hamas to keep closer track of foreign activists and journalists in Gaza. Hamas has ruled the Gaza Strip since 2007, where they took over power from the Fatah Movement. Since then, several foreign activists have been kidnapped, damaging Hamas' image in the international media. Hamas' radical Islamist opposition in the area kidnapped and killed the Italian, pro-Palestinian activist Vittorio Arrigoni, 36, just last April. “Gaza is safe and I want to assure all visitors to Gaza that they are safe and secure,” Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas prime minister, told a French journalist at the time. Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum condemned the kidnapping as an attempt “to harm international solidarity with besieged Gaza and to damage the image of the Palestinian people.” Foreigners do not currently have to apply in advance for entry. After crossing into the Gaza Strip from Egypt or Israel, they may fill in a form at a security office near the frontier. The new visa-regulations might be troubling the work of foreign NGO's, who are banned from communicating with Hamas by most states. Hamas is considered a terrorist organization in the United States and European Union. BM
