Egypt seals off border town

The Egyptian government Saturday abandoned its sporadic efforts to seal off the Gaza Strip but tightened a cordon around this border city, restricting the availability of goods in order to dissuade Palestinians from flocking here to shop.

Police used armored personnel carriers to block roads leading deeper into Egypt from Rafah and turned back hundreds of Palestinians. Authorities instructed hoteliers in El Arish, 25 miles southwest of here, not to lodge Palestinian travelers. Some shops were ordered to close early.

Tens of thousands of Palestinians from Gaza poured into Egypt for a fourth day to stock up on goods that have been scarce back home because of a months-old blockade imposed by Israel to retaliate for near-daily rocket fire by Palestinian militants in the coastal enclave.

Gaza militants set off the exodus Wednesday by knocking down parts of an 18-foot-high border fence, enabling Gazans to enter Egypt by climbing over a lower concrete barrier. On Friday, militants bulldozed openings in that barrier, letting hundreds of vehicles pass freely back and forth.

Here on the Egyptian side of Rafah, a city bisected by the border, Palestinians found food, fuel, construction materials and other items growing scarce Saturday. Prices on cleaning fluid and salted fish had doubled overnight. Police at the Suez Bridge, linking the Sinai to the rest of Egypt, were barring vehicles en route to resupply markets depleted by the Gazans’ shopping spree.

Hundreds of riot-equipped border guards lined up shoulder to shoulder along the frontier for a second day but soon gave up the attempt to close it. Reluctant to use excessive force against surging and occasionally violent crowds, Egyptian authorities now hope that shortages of goods will eventually diminish the human flood to a trickle and make it easier to regain control.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit warned Saturday that his government’s patience and hospitality were limited. He said 36 border guards and other security forces had been injured in clashes with the Gazans.

“These provocations cause us concern,” he said after a meeting with President Hosni Mubarak in Cairo. “Our Palestinian brothers should note that the Egyptian decision to host them and ease their suffering should not result in threats to the lives of our sons in the Egyptian forces.”

It was Egypt’s strongest criticism of the Palestinian exodus and was clearly aimed at Hamas, which orchestrated the border breach.

The militant Islamic movement, which governs the Gaza Strip and advocates Israel’s destruction, is intent on keeping the border open by force in an effort to gain a voice in how it is regulated and to end Israeli sanctions.

Until Wednesday, Egypt had largely adhered to an agreement with Israel to coordinate policy at Rafah, the Egypt-Gaza border’s only crossing point. At Israel’s request, Egypt had kept Rafah closed since June, after Hamas seized control of Gaza and drove out secular forces loyal to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, whose rival government rules only the West Bank.

“We are offering an alternative, which is the [joint] operation of Rafah crossing,” Sami abu Zuhri, a senior Hamas official, said Saturday. “We are ready to coordinate this with the Egyptian government.”

Mubarak wants to involve Abbas’ government, which is on good terms with Israel, in any new border arrangement. But Saturday, Abbas rejected Mubarak’s proposal for three-way talks in Cairo, saying he would refuse to discuss anything with Hamas until it gave up control of Gaza.

Instead, Egyptian officials said Mubarak would meet separately with Abbas and a Hamas leader this week.

The open border is a challenge to Mubarak, who is under pressure from the United States and Israel to close it but who does not want to be portrayed in the Arab world as cooperating with a blockade that has caused Gaza’s 1.5 million people to suffer shortages of electricity and food, medicine and other supplies.

Israel is concerned that the border breach will bring an influx of Palestinian militants into areas of the Egyptian Sinai adjacent to Israel. The Israeli military announced Saturday that its troops were on heightened alert along that border and that an Israeli road and tourism sites in the area were temporarily closed.

boudreaux@latimes.com

Special correspondent Jamal reported from Rafah and Times staff writer Boudreaux from Jerusalem. Times staff writer Jeffrey Fleishman contributed to this report from Cairo.