A senior Palestinian source, reported on Wednesday, that the joint Palestinian-Israeli meeting which was conducted on Tuesday at night failed to arrive to any deal for reopening the Rafah Border crossing, in the southern part of the Gaza Strip.
Sabri Saidam, Palestinian Minister of Telecommunications, said that the meeting failed to arrive to any positive results, and added that the two sides agreed to meet again on Sunday.
“We faced several difficulties in a number of sensitive issues concerning the Crossing”, Saidam said, “We will resume the talks in order to arrive to a conclusive solution”.
Also, Saidam added that one of the main conflicting issues was regarding the presence of European observers.
“Israel wants the observers to have an operational role at the crossing”, Saidam stated, “We insist that they should only be as observers”.
Israel also demands that foreigners who want to cross into the Gaza Strip should enter through the Kerem Shalom crossing controlled by Israel, and insists to install surveillance cameras which will monitor every movement at the terminal, and broadcast live images to the Israeli side.
The P.A said that this system is considered another form of Israel control over the crossing even after its withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.
Saidam stated that the P.A wants to fully control the crossing with the presence of a third party to monitor it. “We agreed to a third party in respect to the wish Quartet, and its efforts to revive the peace process”.
The Rafah crossing will be opened at midnight and will remain opened until 9 a.m on Thursday in order to allow the residents to return to the Gaza Strip on the first day of Eid Al Fitir, which is a Muslim feast that marks the end of Ramadan.
