Border stays closed without international agreement

Palestinians will not open their border with Egypt unilaterally, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas said today, answering Israeli concerns and illustrating how much the poverty-stricken seaside territory remains dependent on its Jewish neighbour, despite Israel’s pullout.

Abbas spoke a day after his security forces plugged the last holes in the border fortifications, ending a week of chaos during which thousands of Gazans and Egyptians flooded across the frontier without controls. “The (border) terminal will be open when there is an international agreement,” Abbas said.