On Thursday, Egyptian security officers sought unsuccessfully to stop
the flow of an estimated 300,000 Palestinians into Sinai. Palestinian
sources said Egyptians, including politicians and Bedouin tribal leaders,
entered the Gaza Strip.
"This is a pressure cooker kind of situation and a very damaging
situation, one that threatens to spiral out of control," PA Prime Minister
Salam Fayyad said.
Israel's Counter-Terrorism Bureau has urged Israelis not to visit Sinai,
a popular vacation spot. The bureau also called on Israelis in Sinai to
leave immediately.
The United States has ordered the evacuation of personnel from the
Multinational Force and Observers in El Arish amid heightened threat from
Palestinian insurgents, a diplomatic source said. MFO, which has come under
attack in Sinai, has about 1,800 U.S. personnel, authorized to monitor
Israeli and Egyptian forces.
Israel has increased its military presence along the border with Egypt.
Officials said the military was concerned that hundreds of Palestinians,
particularly Hamas and Islamic Jihad, planned to infiltrate Israel from the
Sinai and attack Israelis.
"In light of the massive passage of Palestinians from the Gaza Strip to
Sinai that has included, according to security assessments, Palestinians
involved in terror, the IDF raised its level of alert along the
Israeli-Egyptian border," an Israeli military statement said.
The military reported measures to increase security along the Egyptian
and Gaza border. The statement cited increased coordination between the
military
and police, contact with Israeli communities in the western Negev and the
closure of a border road.
The sources said the 14-kilometer border wall would not be rebuilt until
the siege of the Gaza Strip was lifted. They said the destruction of the
wall was coordinated with Egypt and preceded warnings by Cairo to the PA to
reconcile with the Hamas regime.
