Hamas/Rafah

      Hamas announced Friday that it plans to take control of Gaza's crossing with Egypt. The crossing has been closed since the outbreak of fighting earlier this week. Under an Israeli-Palestinian agreement, it was monitored by European observers. It is not clear whether the monitors or Israel would accept such an arrangement. In the past, the crossing was patrolled by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Presidential Guard, one of the forces defeated in a five-day battle with Hamas. European Union president Germany had condemned Hamas' "violent and illegal" takeover" of the Gaza Strip. In a statement, the EU expressed its regret over the death of Palestinian civilians in the clashes between gunmen and the implications of the events on the civil population in the Strip.(14,18)