Egypt Withdraws Gaza Mission Over Hamas Takeover

Egypt, has withdrawn its envoys from Gaza in protest at the Islamist Hamas movement's violent ousting of its secular Fatah rivals.

Egypt, a key Middle East peace broker and patron of the Palestinians, has withdrawn its envoys from Gaza in protest at the Islamist Hamas movement's violent ousting of its secular Fatah rivals, officials said on Friday.

They said mission head Major-General Burhan Hammad left with his entire staff as Hamas declared it had seized control of Gaza. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah responded to the takeover by dissolving the Hamas-led coalition government.

"Of course it was a protest measure," said one official familiar with the decision. He declined to be identified.

The Egyptian walkout is a blow to Hamas, which has long been welcomed in Cairo despite being shunned by Western powers. Egypt borders Gaza and Palestinians have long considered it a vital outlet from a territory otherwise penned in by Israel.

Ties between a Hamas-run Gaza and Egypt were now in doubt, an official said: "It will take some time to make decisions" on how relations would now be handled, the official said.

After its week-long assault on Fatah security compounds, Hamas forces are now present at the Rafah terminal on the Gaza-Egypt border. The frontier has also seen an exodus to Egypt of Fatah officials and security men fearing Hamas reprisals.

Ninety-seven Palestinians, most of them Fatah fighters, arrived on a fishing boat on Friday at the Egyptian port of El Arish.

Egyptian mediation stemmed past flare-ups of fighting between Hamas and Fatah. Egyptian officials have privately voiced disappointment at the factions' leaders for not reining in the most recent, and most decisive, round of Gaza violence.

Palestinians fear the Egyptian withdrawal could usher in similar distancing measures by Arab and other foreign powers in Gaza, deepening the impoverished territory's isolation.