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Arab/Muslim States

Egypt won't stop all smuggling into Gaza


By Jerusalem Newswire Editorial Staff
August 23, 2005

Though it is only 12 miles long, hundreds of Egyptian troops will be unable seal the Sinai-Gaza border to all terrorist attempts to smuggle weapons into Palestinian Authority-controlled areas, Cairo insisted last week.

?There isn't a country in the world that can commit itself 100 percent to close off a border from smuggling,? Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak told Israel's Yediot Ahronot.

Article III of Egypt's peace treaty with Israel obligates it to curb all acts of belligerence against Israel originating from its territory.

Until next month, Israel still controls what is known as the ?Philadelphia Route,? and the IDF has managed to stop most smuggling efforts. But the Israelis have always operated with the disadvantage of a hostile ?Palestinian? population on one side and sovereign Egyptian territory on the other, giving them freedom of movement only right along the border itself.

Musa Abu Marzuq, deputy political bureau chief of Hamas, said in an interview with London's Asharq al-Awsat that he was sure Egypt's control of the border would not hinder his group's efforts to ?liberate? the land from Jewish rule.

?We do not expect that [Egypt's] role will be carried out except in the interest of the Palestinian cause and to serve the Palestinian people,? said Abu Marzuq.

Defense experts have warned for months that in the absence of an Israeli presence along the border, Gaza is likely to be flooded with advanced and heavy weaponry, posing a grave threat to the Negev towns in its vicinity.

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