Status quo hard to restore on Gaza-Egypt border

By Jonathan Wright - Analysis

CAIRO (Reuters) - The Islamist movement Hamas blew a hole in the Egyptian government's policy on the border with the Gaza Strip when it knocked down the border wall and let tens of thousands of Palestinians pour into Egypt.

The Egyptian government cannot now restore the status quo on the border without some concessions to the Hamas demand for an open crossing point free of Israeli supervision, analysts say.

Since Hamas took control of Gaza in June, Egypt has cooperated with the U.S. and Israeli policy of sealing off the densely populated strip of Palestinian territory, in an attempt to turn the population against the Islamists.

But the policy faced widespread disgust inside Egypt, where people saw the government as doing Israel's dirty work against the Palestinians, and the destruction of the wall on Wednesday suggests that the policy was not sustainable.

Israel raised the stakes on Thursday by advocating complete disengagement from Gaza, which would throw all the problems on Egyptian shoulders. Egypt would strongly resist such a move for economic and security reasons.

For the moment Egyptian security forces have stood aside as Palestinians go shopping in the towns of northern Sinai, stocking up on goods which had become scarce in Gaza.

"The view of the Egyptian government is that there is no way they were going to fire at Palestinian civilians crossing the border. Besides, the police were simply overwhelmed," said a senior diplomat who specialises in Israeli-Palestinian affairs.

So far the Egyptian government has given few clues to its intentions. President Mubarak said the Palestinians could come and buy food, provided they go home and do not bear arms.