Contributed by Lucia in Spain
"GAZA, Jan 26 (Reuters) - Hamas offered on Saturday to restore the Gaza Strip's ruptured border with Egypt through direct diplomacy with Cairo, challenging a plan by rival Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to assume control. Egypt is under pressure to seal the border that fell on Wednesday as needy Palestinians surged across, but is reluctant to be seen as shoring up a 7-month-old blockade imposed on Gaza to cripple its Hamas rulers while Abbas seeks peace with Israel. "We are offering an alternative, which is the operation of Rafah crossing, and we are ready to coordinate this with the Egyptian government," senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri told reporters, referring to a key terminal at a frontier town.
"The situation at the Rafah border is temporary and exceptional."
A Hamas source said free movement across Rafah "is expected to last as long as it takes for an understanding to be reached between Hamas and the Egyptian government over the reoperation".....
While Abbas and his government have stepped up public calls for the blockade to be lifted, U.N., European and other Western officials say Hamas's opponents within Abbas's Fatah have been behind-the-scenes backers of keeping the crossings closed....."
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