Gaza - About 500 Muslim pilgrims were allowed to reenter the Gaza Strip on Sunday evening and another 400 will be let in Monday, according to Israeli officials, while Hamas said it would not allow over 2,000 other pilgrims to return to the salient via Israeli crossings. The Palestinians allowed back in had left Gaza, to conduct the Haj pilgrimage to Mecca, via the northern Israeli controlled Erez Crossing.
As their exit had been coordinated there was no impediment in allowing their return via Israel, Shadi Yassin, from the Israeli Civil Administration for Gaza said.
However, about 2,250 pilgrims remained stranded on the Egyptian side of the Gaza border, as the Islamic Hamas movement again refused to allow pilgrims who had exited using the southern Rafah crossing, to enter the Gaza Strip via an Israeli-controlled crossing point.
"We cannot accept any justification for the pilgrims' entry through Kerem Shalom crossing because this will endanger them and is like handing them over to the Zionist enemy," Hamas spokesman Ismail Radwan said.
At the same time in Cairo, Egyptian President Hosny Mubarak said that any opening of the Rafah crossing point for the stranded pilgrims would not be possible with a European observer.
Mubarak added in remarks to reporters that a European observer had been summoned "but did not respond to us."
Many of the pilgrims have said they fear arrest if they return home via the Israeli-controlled crossing. Some of them are on Israel's wanted list.
Radwan urged Egypt to allow the pilgrims to return via the Rafah crossing point, on Egypt's border with the Gaza Strip.
The crossing has been closed since June, when Hamas staged a violent takeover of the Gaza Strip. It was reopened for the first time earlier this month, according to an agreement between Hamas and Egypt, to allow the pilgrims to leave for Mecca.
The Egyptian-Hamas deal angered the Israelis, who insisted the pilgrims return via Israeli terminals in order to undergo security checks.
Radwan says that Hamas politburo chief Khaled Mashaal was in contact with Egyptian officials in order to resolve the crisis and the Hamas authorities in the Strip were also working to find a solution.
"We have received promises from the Egyptian side that this issue was going to be resolved," he said.
