Egypt urged Europe on Sunday to help with fast reconstruction aid for the Gaza Strip and to put pressure on Israel to quickly reopen border crossings, according to Reuters. With shaky unilateral ceasefires in place after a 22-day Israeli offensive on Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Israel has said it would allow in food, medicine and other essentials to the sector but ruled out a full reopening of borders for now. "I ask the European Union to do (things) very, very quickly to rebuild to help the Palestinians to get out of this crisis," Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said before talks with European and Palestinian counterparts. "We need to force the Israelis to negotiate and also tell them to open crossings and to give Palestinians a chance to live in a normal way," he told reporters. The EU has said it is ready to reactivate and expand a mission launched in 2005 to monitor the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt. The EU ministers said last week they won assurances from Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni during talks in Brussels that crossings would be opened for humanitarian aid, while Livni urged the EU to help combat weapon smuggling into Gaza.
