Israel, Palestinians agree to open Beit Hanoun crossing

Israel and the Palestinians have has agreed on temporarily opening the Beit Hanoun crossing (Erez) in the northern Gaza Strip, a Palestinian source told Arab Today on Wednesday. The agreement follows Egypt’s decision to indefinitely close the Rafah border gate due to the 'security conditions' in northern Sinai, said sources from the Palestine Ministry of Civil Affairs. Israeli Radio quoted a Palestinian source of saying that Israel will allow Palestinians to ?travel through the Erez crossing using their identity card and passport. The source however refused to mention a date for when the agreement will be implemented. The Hamas government in the Gaza Strip have denounced the decision by Egyptian ?authorities to shut down the Rafah crossing, noting that it “increases the ?suffering of the people of Gaza who are under an Israeli siege and cannot move or travel freely  causing problems especially for those who are ill and for students.” In a statement issued after the weekly government meeting, Hamas Deputy Prime Minister Ziad al-Zaza, voiced rejection of the 2005 agreement that was signed between Israel, the Palestinian National Authority , Egypt and the EU saying "the crossing is a pure Palestinian-Egyptian gate and we can't accept any Israeli or international presence there." He said the crossing saw a massive decline in number of travellers over the ?last two months, whilst more restrictions were imposed on those who were allowed to cross as they were limited to a few categories. Hamas has called upon the Egyptian authorities to urgently open the crossing again for ?all Palestinians whilst? expressing regret over the deterioration of the situation in Egypt and the increasing number of casualties. However the movement has also categorically rejected that it played any part in the situation in Egypt and said any rumours stating the opposite were unfounded. The Islamist movement received a blow with the ouster of Egyptian Islamist President Mohammed Morsi last month by the military. Morsi comes from the Muslim Brotherhood movement, the ideological inspiration for Hamas. Since the overthrow of Morsi on July 3, the Rafah crossing point has been closed most of the time and Hamas fears that the return of the Egyptian military to dominate the Egyptian arena would bring back former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak's policy against the movement. During a visit to Cairo last month, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas from the rival Fatah movement said he is ready to talk with Egypt and Israel to reactivate the 2005 agreement on Gaza border crossing points.