ISRAEL RELINQUISHES CONTROL OF BORDER TO TERRORISTS AND EUROS

Israel and PA Clinch Deal on Gaza-Egypt Border - Aluf Benn, Arnon Regular, and Akiva Eldar
Israeli and Palestinian officials have clinched a long-awaited deal on the manning of the Gaza-Egypt border crossing, Secretary of State Rice said Tuesday in Jerusalem. Rice had postponed her departure from the region Monday in order to finalize the details. Under the deal, the border would tentatively open November 25, and construction of a Gaza seaport would begin. Palestinians would be able to travel between the West Bank and Gaza in bus convoys through Israel.

At the Rafah crossing there will be a communications center with videos filming people crossing the Egypt-Gaza border. The videos will be monitored by Israeli officials, and European observers will have the final decision in the event of a dispute over passage for persons Israel deems suspicious and the PA believes should be allowed to cross. (Ha'aretz)

See also IDF Intelligence Warns of Security Threats at Gaza-Egypt Border - Hanan Greenberg
As an agreement on opening up the Gaza-Egypt border crossing seems imminent, a senior IDF Intelligence officer says that there are warnings and threats to Israel's security from the current arrangement. "With all due respect to the Egyptians and the Palestinians, we can only trust ourselves. Even if there are some Europeans monitoring the place - he won't jump on a terrorist the minute he crosses and arrest him there. He won't even know who the terrorist is," he said. "Now the Rafah Crossing is turning into a dangerous point....The problem exists on both sides, both from the possibility of traffic of terrorists who left Gaza with an intention to enter Judea or Samaria, or Israel, to carry out attacks, and there are also suspicions that there will be infiltration attempts from Egypt into the Strip," the officer said. "A large quantity of arms is being piled up in Sinai in El-Arish. There are whole stockpiles there that are waiting to be smuggled into Gaza. Unfortunately, the Egyptians are not in control there," he said. (Ynet News)