Palestinian sources said at least 10 assailants stormed the YMCA
library, abducted the guards and then blew up the facility, which houses a
kindergarten for Muslims. Nobody was injured.
"Sources in Gaza say that Hamas will fire at anyone attempting to build
the wall unless the Rafah border crossing is reopened," Hussein El Qayem, an
Egyptian official and member of the North Sinai Tagammu party, said.
Over the last few weeks, Hamas gunmen have been firing toward Egyptian
workers ordered to reconstruct the Sinai-Gaza border wall. The
wall was blown up in at least seven places by Hamas, which prompted the
flight of 700,000 Palestinians into the Sinai Peninsula.
In early February, Egypt was reported to have resealed the border. Since
then, the Egyptians have fortified the border barrier and plan to install
sensors to detect infiltration.
Under the Egyptian plan, the entire Sinai-Gaza border would consist of a
high concrete wall. El Qayem said the new wall would be able to withstand
bombings.
Hamas has pledged to stop the rebuilding of the Gaza wall. On Feb. 12,
Hamas combatants opened fire over the heads of Egyptian construction crews.
Nobody was injured.
On Sunday, a suspected Palestinian missile landed in Sinai at an
Egyptian border crossing with the Gaza Strip. The missile struck and damaged
an Egyptian government building and nobody was injured.
This was the second Palestinian missile to have struck Sinai in as many
weeks. On Feb. 6, Hamas fired a Kassam-class short-range missile that landed
in eastern Sinai. Egypt has sought to portray the incident as a missile that
went awry.
The Islamic regime has already destroyed the iron barrier that separates
the Gaza Strip from the Egyptian frontier. Hamas has been in control of this
barrier since the movement captured the Gaza Strip in June 2007.
