Hamas threatens Egypt

The wonders of the Middle East. Hamas cares about nothing and no one, unless they can be used to kill. Right now, the Egyptians are forced into a precarious position trying to contain these suicidal killers. Meanwhile, the Israelis are thinking about dropping bombs into the border to stop the flow of weapons that are hidden in the boxes flowing across the border. And can anyone blame them?

Egypt’s Efforts to Restore Border Falter - New York Times: "Egypt moved to restore its border with Gaza on Friday, stationing border guards and riot police officers to try to block Palestinians from entering. But Palestinians used a bulldozer to knock down another portion of the wall, originally built by Israel just inside Gaza, to continue their shopping spree.

The Egyptians announced on loudspeakers that the border would be closed at various times of the day on Friday, but allowed Palestinians who were inside Egypt to return to Gaza laden with goods, even as cranes lifted pallets of supplies over another part of the border barricade. The border barrier on the Egyptian side is a low concrete wall topped with barbed wire.

There were small clashes throughout the day, with short episodes of rock-throwing. Egyptians fired guns into the air and aimed water cannons above the heads of the those in the crowd to keep them back. The new breaches in the wall were large enough for cars and trucks to drive through, and some Egyptian guards then retreated.

Egypt is under pressure from Israel and the United States to restore the international border and regulate it, but does not want to use excessive force against the Gazans, whom the Egyptian president, Hosni Mubarak, has insisted are starving under the pressure of Israeli restrictions on imports and travel.

But often in the past, Egypt has used force, ranging from water cannons to automatic-rifle fire, against Palestinians who have breached the border, and the government will be calculating when its effort to respond generously to a crisis veers into instability or chaos. Nor does Egypt want responsibility for serving the population of Gaza, removing the burden from Israel.

Hamas is trying to push Egypt into an agreement to regulate the border without having it sealed completely, as it had been from the time Hamas routed Fatah and took over Gaza in early June. A Hamas spokesman, Sami Abu Zuhri, said, “The gaps shouldn’t be closed because they provide urgent assistance to the Palestinians.”

Israeli officials have expressed increasing concern to the Egyptian and United States governments that Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups are using the border breach to import military supplies and to send out fighters for training or terrorism."