After Egypt court ruling, Gaza uneasy

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip -- Gaza residents said Sunday that they fear growing isolation and more hardships after an Egyptian court declared the territory's ruling Hamas a terrorist organization. Some blamed the Islamic militant Hamas while others said Egypt is being unreasonable.

Hamas called for protests against the Egyptian government and issued angry statements, but did not offer a way out of the crisis. Salah Bardaweel, a Hamas spokesman, alleged Sunday that Egypt has become a "direct agent" of Israeli interests.

Hamas urged Saudi Arabia to press Egypt to open the Gaza-Egypt border.

Saturday's court ruling signaled Egypt's growing hostility toward Hamas, an offshoot of the regionwide Muslim Brotherhood. Egypt has blamed Hamas for violence in the country's restive Sinai Peninsula, a charge Hamas denies.

Hamas seized Gaza by force in 2007, and the territory's borders have been largely sealed by Israel and Egypt since then. Egypt intensified the blockade after its military toppled a Hamas-friendly government in Cairo in 2013.

In recent months, Egyptian soldiers have destroyed virtually all smuggling tunnels under the Gaza-Egypt border. In October, they began razing parts of the Egyptian town of Rafah on the border with Gaza. Residents near the border said homes are still being blown up or bulldozed at a steady pace, with the latest explosion heard Sunday afternoon.

The Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt, Gaza's main gateway to the world, mostly has been closed since October. This year, it was only open for two days, leaving thousands unable to get out of the territory, including Muslim pilgrims and students at foreign universities. The tunnel closures have put an end to the smuggling of cheap fuel and cement from Egypt, further hurting a crippled Gaza economy and driving up unemployment. Cigarette prices have tripled.

Some in Gaza blamed Hamas, saying it's time the militant group moderate or hand over control to the Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, from whom it seized Gaza.

"Hamas is taking us hostage for the sake of its own interest," university graduate Ahmed Tiri said. Hamas rules Gaza with an iron grip, and such criticism is relatively rare.

Last year, Abbas and Hamas reached a deal under which an Abbas-led government would take over in Gaza. However, the agreement was never implemented, with both sides unwilling to compromise. As a result, reconstruction of Gaza after last year's Israel-Hamas war has stalled.

Walid Abu Hassouna, a barber, said he expects Egypt to tighten the closure of Gaza. "If they could deprive us of the air we breathe, they would do it," he said.

Some said Hamas should negotiate with Egypt to improve the lives of Gaza's 1.8 million people.

Meanwhile, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi visited Saudi Arabia on Sunday for his first policy meeting with the country's king ahead of a conference aimed at shoring up financial support from wealthy Gulf states for Egypt's battered economy.

A Saudi official said the two leaders discussed el-Sissi's proposal for a joint anti-terrorism force to tackle regional threats, particularly from Yemen, Libya and Syria.

In an interview with the pan-Arab Al-Arabiya news channel broadcast over the weekend, el-Sissi said the force would not be used for attacking "but for defending the security of our countries."

He said Jordan has expressed interest in creating such a force, which could include Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

Egyptian troops already are deployed on Saudi Arabia's border with Iraq to help defend it against radical militants, according to Egyptian military and security officials.

King Salman and other royals greeted el-Sissi at the airport. El-Sissi spent roughly four hours in the kingdom, a key organizer of the investment conference scheduled to take place later this month in Egypt's Sharm el-Sheikh.

Salman is scheduled to meet today with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a strong critic of Egypt's Brotherhood crackdown. El-Sissi criticized Turkey in his Al-Arabiya interview, saying it "needed to halt its interference in Egypt."

Information for this article was contributed by Abdullah al-Shihri and Aya Batrawy of The Associated Press.

A Section on 03/02/2015

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