The Palestinian Authority on Friday held an official ceremony to observe the opening of the Rafah border crossing. However, the terminal will be opened just on Saturday, only four hours a day.
The opening was delayed because the European Union border monitors will not be ready to commence their task before Saturday, it was reported.
More than 1,200 public figures from the Palestinian territories and abroad attended the Rafah crossing opening ceremony, led by Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas and the EU envoy for the Middle East peace process, Marc Otte. Of the leading figures that attended the opening ceremony were the US and British consuls in Jerusalem, PA civil affairs minister Mohammed Dahlan, Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman and senior leaders from Hamas movement, Mahmoud Al Zahar and Ismail Haniyya.
The opening of the Rafah crossing represents a "milestone in Palestinian history," a source at the PA said Friday, stressing to the fact that for the first time the Palestinians will have an almost-exclusive supervision authority over passage between their territory and another country (Egypt).
The final border crossing deal was concluded in a meeting between American Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz.
Before the ceremony, the Islamic Jihad movement announced that it will boycott it, considering the agreement on its reopening as incomplete and undermines Palestinian sovereignty. "We will not take part in the crossing's opening ceremony," Khaled Al Batsh, a prominent leader in the movement, told RNA. "Because the crossing agreement is incomplete and gives Israel the right to monitor Palestinians moving through the crossing." "We refuse to be false witnesses at the ceremony," Al Batsh added.
