Gaza - Hamas security forces on Saturday prevented would-be Hajj pilgrims who bypassed the government when applying to travel to Mecca, from reaching the Rafah crossing point with Egyp, witnesses said, in the latest incident in the Hamas-Fatah standoff. "They installed checkpoints on the ways leading to Rafah crossing and forced us to go back," one of the witnesses said and asked his name not to be used.
Meanwhile, official Palestinian television reported that Hamas police scuffled with the pilgrims arriving at the Rafah crossing point. The claim could not confirmed since Gaza journalists were also denied access to the crossing.
Egypt had announced that it would open the Rafah crossing for three days, starting from Saturday, to allow the departure of the Palestinian pilgrims. But Hamas' interior ministry said the crossing was closed.
Hamas says the pilgrims, who registered via president Mahmoud Abbas' government which rules in West Bank, will not be allowed to travel unless the pilgrims who registered via Hamas are given visas by Saudi Arabia.
The standoff is the latest in a series of feud between Hamas, which routed pro-Abbas forces and took over Gaza last year, and its rival Fatah movement which controls now the West Bank and led by Abbas.
Hamas doesn't recognize the government that Abbas formed after he lost Gaza and bans any contacts between Gazans and the West Bank- based government, widening the political split between the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
The two Palestinian administrations have been competing to prove their legitimacy.
Jamal Bawatna, Religious Affairs Minister in the West Bank, said Saudi Arabia had granted visas to all Palestinians of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip who applied via his government.
But in Gaza, Hamas has also sent passports of thousands of pilgrims to Saudi Arabia to get visas for them to travel to perform the Hajj. So far, Saudi Arabia has not granted visas to those pilgrims who applied through Hamas administration.
