Hamas urges Egypt to open border shut since Sinai attack

By Nidal al-Mughrabi

GAZA (Reuters) - The head of the Hamas government in Gaza urged Egypt on Thursday to open a vital border crossing closed since gunmen killed 16 Egyptian guards in neighbouring Sinai on Sunday.

Ismail Haniyeh pledged his support for Egypt's investigations of the attack, which has led to the biggest Egyptian military assault in the Sinai Peninsula in nearly 40 years.

"At the same time I call upon my brother, Egyptian President Mohammed Mursi to open the Rafah crossing, to regain a lifeline for Gaza," Haniyeh said at a dinner ending the daylong Ramadan fast.

"Gaza could never be anything but a source of stability for Egypt," Haniyeh added, saying those responsible for the Sinai slayings were conspiring to tighten an Israeli blockade on Gaza in force since Hamas seized control of the territory in 2007.

Gaza's Islamist rulers have ruled out suggestions that Palestinian gunmen took part in the Sinai massacre, and have criticised Cairo for imposing "collective punishment" on the impoverished coastal enclave.

The Rafah crossing normally sees some 800 people a day leave for Egypt and beyond, and is the only window on the world for the vast majority of Gazans.

No one has claimed responsibility for Sunday's assault, in which the assailants seized two armoured vehicles to storm an Israeli border crossing. One made it through before the attackers were killed by Israeli fire. The incident was the deadliest along the Israeli-Sinai border in decades.

In addition to challenging the durability of a 1979 Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty already strained by Western ally Hosni Mubarak's fall from power last year, the violence also raised questions about ties between Egypt's nascent Muslim Brotherhood-led government and Hamas in Gaza.

Egyptian officials suggested initially that Palestinian gunmen were involved in the Sinai attack.

Haniyeh denied this, arguing that the attack's "prime beneficiary was the occupation," a common shorthand for Israel by Hamas officials whose ideology rejects Israel's existence as a Jewish state.

"Gaza is innocent of this crime. Neither our investigations nor our contacts have proven so far anyone from Gaza was involved," Haniyeh said.

(Editing by Rosalind Russell)

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PM shocked at US Gurudwara attack, outrage in Punjab

Mon, Aug 06, 2012 at 19:06

Like this story, share it with millions of investors on M3PM shocked at US Gurudwara attack, outrage in PunjabPM shocked at US Gurudwara attack, outrage in Punjab  .   Share  .  Email  .  Print  .  A+A-New Delhi/Chandigarh, Aug 6 (PTI) Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today expressed shock over the shooting at a gurudwara in the US and hoped authorities there will ensure "conditions" that such violent acts are not repeated, as the attack sparked an outrage in the country, especially in Punjab. The Prime Minister said what was more painful was the fact that this "senseless act of violence" should be targeted at a religious place. An anguished Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal asked the Prime Minister to take up with the Obama administration the issue of safety and security of Sikhs living in the US while the Sikh religious leadership said the attack by a lone white gunman was a security lapse on the part of US Government. Condemning the attack, External Affairs Minister S M Krishna said it does not fit into the proclaimed policies of the US. Six people were killed in the attack on the gurudwara during Sunday morning prayers in Wisconsin by at least one gunman who was also shot dead. The Sikh community in Jammu staged a protest and sought adequate security for their members and religious institutions in the US. Reaching out to the Sikh community, US Ambassador to India Nancy Powell offered her prayers at Gurudwara Bangla Sahib in Delhi and said the incident will be probed thoroughly. "We hope that the authorities will reach out to the grieving families and ensure conditions that such violent acts are not repeated in the future," Prime Minister Singh said in a statement. Later talking to reporters, Singh said he was "enormously" saddened by the incident and hoped the "American authorities will investigate who were behind this dastardly attack". In a letter to the Prime Minister, Chief Minister Badal said "there is a growing feeling in the minds of Punjabis in general and Sikhs in particular that the Union government must get more actively and vigorously involved in getting the US administration address the issue of safety in right earnest." The US Embassy in a statement in Delhi said any incident like the attack on a Gurudwara one is tragic, especially when it happens in a place of worship. PTI SGI RC PYK VJ ARU CORR SUN AB GSN document.write(page_mob_footer); function postquote(keysearch) { len = keysearch.companyname.value.length; if(len 10) { tempvar=companyname; flag1="true"; break; } else { j=i+1; result= companyname.charAt(i); preval=companyname.charAt(j); if(result==" " || preval==" " || result=="." || preval=="." || len=0; i--) revstr+=str.charAt(i) return revstr; } function tabs_news_rhs(a) { if(a==1) { document.getElementById("news_mp").style.display="block"; document.getElementById("news_ep").style.display="none"; document.getElementById("rhs_tab_1").className = "act"; document.getElementById("rhs_tab_2").className = ""; } else { document.getElementById("news_mp").style.display="none"; document.getElementById("news_ep").style.display="block"; document.getElementById("rhs_tab_1").className = ""; document.getElementById("rhs_tab_2").className = "act"; } }

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