Israel has agreed to allow at least 627 Palestinians who have been stranded in Egypt for weeks to pass into the Gaza Strip, Palestinian officials said Saturday.


Some of the 6,000 Palestinians who have been waiting in the Egyptian border town of Rafah will be allowed to pass through Israel and into Gaza at the beginning of next week, said Palestinian Information Minister Riad Maliki.

Israel has approved a list of 627 Palestinians who will be allowed to cross, said Hani Jabbour, a Palestinian security coordinator stationed the Egyptian side of Rafah.

On Sunday, 100 will cross and the rest will pass on Monday, Jabbour said. Further transfers through such a route are expected in the future, Jabbour said.

The Palestinians have been unable to return to Gaza because the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the coastal strip has been closed since June 9. The terminal was jointly controlled by Egypt, Israel, the Palestinians, and overseen by European monitors.

Hamas has demanded partial control of the terminal since its bloody takeover of Gaza in mid-June, but Israel and Egypt have refused.

The Islamic militant group denounced the deal on the stranded Palestinians because it allowed Israel to decide who could enter Gaza. Hamas officials and supporters would presumably not be allowed to enter through Israel.

"There is only the Rafah border crossing," Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said. "The use of any other border crossing increases Israeli control over the Gaza Strip."

Israel did not immediately comment on the deal. Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev would only say that Israel was searching for "creative solutions" to return the Palestinians to Gaza.

"No one wants to see those people trapped indefinitely," Regev said.

The Palestinians would pass from Egypt into Israel through the rarely used Al-Oja cargo crossing, then into the northern Gaza Strip through the Erez crossing, Jabbour said.

Hamas opposed a similar idea in the past that would have allowed the Palestinians to cross through the Israeli-controlled Kerem Shalom passage into the Gaza Strip.

Hamas militants attacked the Kerem Shalom crossing with mortar shells in response to the idea.

Hundreds of the stranded Palestinians in Egypt have been living in harsh conditions in the Sinai desert. International aid groups have repeatedly called for their plight to be speedily resolved.

The remaining Palestinians stranded in Rafah have been asked to return to Cairo to register with the Palestinian embassy there, Jabbour said. The embassy will transfer lists of those registered to the Israelis for approval, he said.
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