RAFAH (Gaza Strip): The Rafah border, the Gaza Strip's crucial link to the outside world, was formally opened by Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas on Friday, nearly three months after it was closed by Israel.
"It is a dream come true for us to be here to celebrate the reopening of the Rafah terminal as a free crossing between us and our brothers in Egypt," Abbas told an official ceremony packed with Palestinian and foreign dignitaries.
Under EU supervision, the transit route will open up the world to the Gaza Strip's 1.3 million largely impoverished residents, after fears the territory would be transformed into a "giant prison" after a 38-year Israeli occupation. Palestinian officials hope that a fully functioning border will help kick-start a depressed economy overly dependent on Israel.
When the crossing starts processing people on Saturday, it will be the first time Rafah is operated without direct Israeli control since the Middle East war of 1967. Joined by the EU special envoy to the Middle East, Marc Otte, and Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman, Abbas cut a ribbon in the main passenger terminal before symbolically handing over his passport to an official.
Israel closed the terminal on September 7, five days before its troops left the territory. Following chaos at the border and unhindered crossings in the days following the pullout, Rafah has since opened only intermittently.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice brokered a deal on November 15 that will see EU monitors oversee security at Rafah by being given real-time access to closed circuit TV footage. Despite the Islamist fundamentalist movement's rivalry with Abbas's ruling Fatah party, set to come to a hand in parliamentary elections in January, the Gaza-based leader Hamas, Mahmud Zahar, also attended the ceremony. He called the reopening of the terminal a "Palestinian victory"despite reservations about the EU mission and Israeli access to surveillance footage.
