Word: rafah
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...moment, the troops are holding observatory positions just inside the border, on the site of an abandoned airport about a mile from the southern town of Rafah. It is there that military intelligence believes Shalit is being held. Palestinian gunmen had taken up positions throughout Gaza, but as of yet, neither side has initiated a confrontation, suggesting that there are some non-military avenues to resolution...
Palestinian officials fear that Sharon's move, apparently meant to rejuvenate the peace process, may stall it. Although Palestinians last week celebrated the opening of the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt--the first border post under Palestinian control--a Cabinet minister said he is worried that Israeli jockeying will hinder further progress: "Politicians will now be interested in playing internal Israeli games, rather than working for peace with the Palestinians...
...Wolfensohn had proposed to break the deadlock by having European personnel police the Rafah crossing, but the Israelis still insisted on access to the surveillance camera video feeds and computer data streams at the crossing. Also, the Palestinians wanted to have final authority. The Palestinians also complained the harvest couldn't wait for the months it would take to comply with Israeli demands that they install state-of-the-art scanners to screen trucks. So Wolfensohn threatened to walk, leaving the two sides, as he recounted over the weekend, to "blow each other...
...Monday, Rice met with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon as well as with other senior officials, and also with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, pressing both sides to find the "will and creativity" to open not only Rafah but all the gateways in and out of Gaza and the West Bank...
...security-sovereignty deadlock was resolved in a compromise in which the Israelis agreed to cede responsibility for camera surveillance and watch-list screening at Rafah to European personnel, while the Palestinians accepted that the Europeans would have final authority to order extra searches and computer checks on people and vehicles traveling from Egypt to Gaza...