Al-Qaeda fugitive to Egypt' in exchange for border opening

Hamas 'handed Al-Qaeda fugitive to Egypt' in exchange for border opening

Compiled by Daily Star staff
Tuesday, October 02, 2007

Hamas extradited a wanted Al-Qaeda militant to Egypt in exchange for Cairo's agreement to allow dozens of stranded Hamas and Islamic Jihad members to return to the Gaza Strip, a report in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz said Monday, quoting the Palestinian news agency Maan.

Scores of Palestinian militants who had been stranded in Egypt since Hamas took over Gaza in mid-June were allowed back into the territory on Sunday, witnesses said, signaling possible new accommodation between Cairo and the Islamist group, Haaretz said.

Egypt has straddled a diplomatic fence with Hamas, neither shunning it nor accepting its violent removal of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah faction from the Gaza Strip.
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