Hamas allows Muslim pilgrims to leave Gaza

RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AFP) – Hamas said Friday it is allowing Muslims to leave the Gaza Strip on the annual pilgrimage to Mecca after blocking them last year because of a Palestinian political dispute.

"The first wave of around 1,000 hajj pilgrims from the Gaza Strip is now traveling to Egypt through the Rafah border crossing," Hamas religious affairs minister Taleb Abu Shaar told AFP.

"We are coordinating with our brothers in the (West Bank political capital of) Ramallah to allow 4,500 pilgrims from Gaza to make the pilgrimage this year," he added.

Hamas prevented pilgrims from leaving Gaza last year to protest Saudi Arabia's policy of only granting visas through president Mahmud Abbas's Palestinian Authority in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

The Palestinians have been deeply divided since Hamas seized power in Gaza in June 2007, driving out forces loyal to Abbas in a week of bloody clashes and cleaving the territories into hostile rival camps.

This year, however, the West Bank religious affairs ministry has reached an agreement with its Hamas-run counterpart to jointly issue the visas to residents of the impoverished coastal territory.

In another rare instance of cooperation, the West Bank government shipped 5,000 swine flu vaccinations to Gaza to be given to pilgrims, a Hamas health ministry official said.

"We will administer the vaccine at the Rafah crossing itself to make sure that everyone gets vaccinated," Jihad Ahmed, the head of the ministry's vaccination programme, told AFP.

This will be the first time the vaccine has been used in Gaza, which has no recorded cases of A(H1N1).

Israel and Egypt have sealed Gaza off from all but vital aid and strictly restricted travel since Hamas seized power.

The Rafah crossing with Egypt, Gaza's only border terminal not controlled by Israel, is occasionally opened to allow humanitarian cases, students and Palestinians with Egyptian visas to leave the territory.