PALESTINE - July 29 - Plight Of Stranded Palestinians Nears End As More Than 100 Begin Journey Home.

More than 100 Palestinians begins their trip home to Gaza, almost two months after the takeover of the territory by the militant Palestinian faction Hamas triggered the closure of the border with Egypt. For seven weeks now, as many as 6,000 Palestinians trying to return to their homes in Gaza have been stranded in Egypt, objects of a political struggle between Hamas and Fatah involving both Israel and Egypt. The Palestinians, some of whom had gone to Egypt or elsewhere for medical care or schooling, have been stuck in Rafah, an Egyptian border town, or here in nearby El Arish because the border crossing between Egypt and Gaza has been closed since June 9. Several hundred, with little money, have been living in harsher conditions in the desert, cared for by international aid agencies. The Rafah border crossing, like the separate Karni crossing for goods between Israel and Gaza, was closed because of the fierce fighting in June between Fatah and Hamas. After Hamas routed Fatah and took over the government of Gaza, the main crossings for people, in Rafah's case, and goods, in Karni's, have been kept closed by Egypt and Israel to isolate Hamas. Some Palestinians, like Rafik Ahmad Salman - whose name was not a list of those who were permitted to cross the border Sunday- have been stranded in Rafah for more than two months because the crossing was intermittently closed even before Hamas took control of Gaza. "I am disappointed because I have been here for 77 days with some sick people from my family, but I hope that I will be able to cross tomorrow", Salman said July 29. "This is again another tragedy of the Palestinian people". The closure has had the quiet support of the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah, who fired the Hamas government and installed a new one in the West Bank led by an independent economist, Salam Fayyad, whose authority Hamas has declined to recognise. Hamas says that Egypt and Israel should abide by a crossings agreement negotiated by the Bush administration and reopen both Rafah and Karni. Hamas has said that it will not allow Kerem Shalom - a border crossing into Gaza on Israeli territory but where Gaza, Egypt and Israel meet - to be used for people, because Israel will control who may enter or exit from Gaza. That is how Israel wants it, however, because Hamas and its officials have been able to bring in millions of dollars unchecked through the Rafah crossing, even though it was monitored by EU officials and by Israelis watching on a video link. Ashraf al-Ajrami, minister for prisoners affairs in Ramallah, said July 28: Due to the absence of Palestinian security forces at Rafah crossing, and amid Egyptian, Israeli and European refusals to reopen the crossing, we agreed with the Israelis to let the people cross at an Israeli crossing". Hamas denounced the deal, since it bypasses Rafah. A Hamas spokesman in Gaza, Sami Abu Zuhri, said, "There is only the Rafah border crossing. The use of any other border crossing increases Israeli control over the Gaza Strip". The Hamas government in the Gaza Strip will begin paying thousands of civil servants cut from Fatah's payroll, officials said, further entrenching the divisions between the two Palestinian territories, The Associated Press reported from Gaza City. Hamas's takeover of Gaza and Abbas's decision to dismiss the Hamas government set up two Palestinian administrations. Hamas's payment of the salaries would further cement its rule over impoverished Gaza, where unemployment is about 40% and most of the 1.4m people receive food from international relief organisations. Ala al-Batta, head of the civil servants' union in Gaza, told a local radio station July 28 that more than 10,000 government workers will receive their salaries from Hamas. Some of the money will go to thousands of members of Hamas's Executive Force, a militia that polices Gaza, and the civil servants who refused an order from Fayyad, the Fatah PM, not to cooperate with the Islamic group. Hamas officials said that the payments would begin July 29 and that it had enough money to pay salaries in the near future. But it was unclear how long it could keep up payments since it has difficulties bringing money into Gaza.