Rice brokers Israel-Palestinian deal on Gaza border

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice waves upon arrival at Palestinian Authority headquarters in the West Bank city of Ramallah. Picture / Reuters

JERUSALEM - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice brokered a deal on Gaza border crossings in marathon talks with Israel and the Palestinians, scoring a rare breakthrough in Middle East diplomacy.

Rice, who put her own reputation at stake by investing so personally in the negotiations, had postponed her departure to Asia for an Apec meeting, staying in Jerusalem an extra day until she secured an agreement on opening the Gaza-Egypt border.

Access to Gaza is key to strengthening the impoverished strip's economy and giving a boost to chances for peacemaking following Israel's withdrawal from the coastal territory in September after 38 years of occupation.

Bleary-eyed after an almost sleepless night of hard-nosed bargaining, Rice praised the deal as a "good step forward".

It hands the Palestinians control of a border for the first time.

"This agreement is intended to give the Palestinian people the freedom to move, to trade, to live ordinary lives," she told a news conference in Jerusalem before flying out.

Rice said the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt, the strip's gateway to the outside world, should open on November 25 with the presence of European Union security monitors.

Palestinians would also be able to start travelling in bus and truck convoys between Gaza and the occupied West Bank within months, and construction of a Gaza seaport would begin.

The main sticking point was Israel's insistence on monitoring passage of goods and people, saying it feared cross-border arms smuggling to militants. Palestinians said an Israeli presence at Rafah would impinge on their sovereignty.

A compromise was reached whereby Israeli and Palestinian security officers at an EU-run control room a few kilometres from Rafah will monitor remote-control cameras.

If the Israelis want someone stopped or detained, they must ask their Palestinian counterparts to do so.

If the Palestinians refuse, an appeal can be made to the EU team of police experts while the person in question is held for up to six hours.

The agreement could give Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas a boost in January parliamentary elections in the face of a strong challenge from Hamas, a militant Islamic group sworn to Israel's destruction.

Hamas called the deal humiliating.

"The agreement gives the Zionist entity the right to have reservations over the entry of people," Hamas said in a statement.

"(The agreement)... turns Gaza into a big prison ruled by guardian states that decide who goes through."

But many Palestinians in Gaza, one of the world's most densely populated places with a population of 1.2 million, welcomed the accord as a way to ease their hardship.

"This is a good start and good omen," said Um Nizar Batran, waiting near Rafah to take her sick son to Egypt for treatment.

Israel, which has kept control of Gaza's borders, air space and sea lanes since its withdrawal, has been under US pressure to reopen the Rafah crossing, mostly closed since September amid sporadic violence.

International Middle East envoy James Wolfensohn, who laid the groundwork for the crossings deal, had threatened to quit out of frustration over weeks of impasse.

US officials had also voiced frustration with what they saw as failure of both sides to capitalise on the Gaza pullout.

In Brussels, a spokeswoman for the European Council said the European Union was to launch its monitoring mission on Monday.

Major-General Pietro Pistolese, a 64-year-old Italian with 40 years' experience in the para-military police (carabinieri), will head a team of 40 to 50 EU officials.

- REUTERS