TEL AVIV: Italian Foreign Minister Massimo D Alema hinted Friday that the European Union could be forced to withdraw its monitors deployed along the Egypt-Gaza border should the crossing remain closed. The Rafah crossing must be opened … This is the concern of the EU, the foreign minister told a news conference with his Israeli counterpart Tzipi Livni in Israel s commercial capital Tel Aviv. The Palestinians, Israelis, we all have responsibilities and we have to decide together if it is possible for Europe to stay there without any ability to decide on the situation while the borders are closed, he added. I hope the issue can be solved in the next few days, D Alema said. Livni said meetings would be held next week between Israel and the European Union on the issue of the crossing. Rafah, the Gaza Strip s sole gateway to the world that bypasses Israel, has been closed nearly continuously since June 25 when Palestinian militants killed two Israeli soldiers and seized a third in a cross-border raid. The operation sparked a massive Israel offensive in the Gaza Strip, where more than 200 Palestinians have been killed since late June. Over the last two months, Rafah has been partially reopened only several times for short periods. The European Union has deployed observers at Rafah, at the request of the Palestinian Authority and Israel, to monitor agreements on border traffic. The border reopened last November, two months after Israel left Gaza after a 38-year occupation, under an Israeli-Palestinian agreement brokered by the United States and allowing for EU monitors. AFP
Italian FM hints EU may recall Gaza-Egypt border observers
