Israel will not stand in the way of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas taking control of Gaza's breached border with Egypt as part of a deal to sideline Hamas Islamists who rule the enclave, officials said on Tuesday.
But it is unclear how Abbas, the Fatah leader, would be able to assert control over the crossing with Egypt given opposition from Hamas, which seized the coastal territory in June and blasted open the Egyptian border wall last week in defiance of an Israeli-led blockade.
Tensions along Gaza's frontier with Egypt flared anew on Tuesday when Egyptian forces tried to prevent Palestinian vehicles from driving into Egypt.
Hamas gunmen intervened, firing into the air to clear the way for cars to pass. They threatened to blast new holes in the border if Egyptian forces refused to back down.
Under heavy international pressure to ease its cordon, Israel has allowed European-funded fuel to reach Gaza's main power plant, but the main U.N. aid agency said its food shipments have been blocked for nearly a week.
Abbas won U.S., European and Arab backing on Monday for taking control of Gaza's only border crossing with Egypt at Rafah, but he has faced resistance from Israel.
"If all of them want it, we will not be the ones that will undermine it. So it will happen," an Israeli official familiar with the deliberations said. "Given that we see Abbas as the legitimate force and we don't want to weaken him, we have no reason to prevent it."
The official stressed, however, that Israel had not agreed to give Abbas control over Gaza's border crossings with Israel, citing security concerns. "Crossing into Israel, that is a different issue altogether," the official said.
BATTLEGROUND
Gaza's border crossings have emerged as the main battleground in the factional power struggle between Hamas and Abbas, whose authority has been limited to the Israeli-occupied West Bank, home to 2.5 million Palestinians, since Gaza's takeover in June.
Abbas has proposed taking over all of Gaza's crossings with Egypt and Israel, seeking strategic footholds in the Hamas-controlled enclave, home to 1.5 million. Hamas sees the effort as part of a campaign to limit its power, won in elections in January 2006.
By blasting open the Rafah border to let hundreds of thousands of Palestinians pour into Egypt to stock up on supplies, Hamas showed its command on the ground and Israeli officials are skeptical of Abbas's ability to take charge.
Egyptian leaders will hold talks in Cairo on Wednesday with Abbas as well as Hamas leaders.
The first Arab country to make peace with Israel, Egypt does not want to be seen as aiding the Israeli blockade of Gaza. But it also fears the spread of Islamist influence and the effects of hosting so many Palestinians without identity papers.
Israel has clamped shut its own border with Gaza as part of its campaign to isolate Hamas and counter cross-border rocket fire by militants.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) said it would run out of canned meat to distribute to impoverished Gazans as early as Wednesday due to the Israeli restrictions.
The European Union said on Monday it would consider sending its border monitors back to the Rafah crossing, provided Israel, Egypt and Abbas all agreed.
Cairo likewise endorsed Abbas's proposal to deploy his own, Western-backed forces at the Rafah crossing, prompting Hamas to decry what it called an "Israeli-led international conspiracy" which would exclude the group from controlling the border.
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