More Gazans pour into Egypt

RAFAH, Gaza Strip - Hamas-backed extremists driving bulldozers knocked down more fortifications yesterday along the Gaza-Egypt border - a brazen challenge to Egyptian riot police, who abandoned their positions after attempting to reseal the frontier using human chains, dogs and water cannons.

Extremists in black clothing, some of them masked, stood atop a bulldozer as it knocked down concrete slabs under the watchful eyes of Hamas security officials, who later were seen patrolling on the Egyptian side of the border.

Thousands of Palestinians flooded into Egypt, pushing through several openings as Egyptian troops retreated to bases on the other side of the border. Palestinians positioned cranes next to the border and lifted crates of supplies into Gaza, including cows.

Hamas, after blasting open the border wall earlier in the week, offered further proof yesterday that it could not be ignored - driving home in no uncertain terms that a high price will be paid by anyone who seeks to shape border arrangements without the group's consent.

The day's events also underscored a great dilemma faced by Egypt: If it acts forcefully against the Gazans, it could anger its own people, who are sympathetic to the Palestinians' plight. But if it does nothing, it risks infiltration by Islamic extremists.

Earlier yesterday, Hamas gunmen fanned out along the Gaza side of the border, attempting to create order. For the first time since the border wall was torn down in a series of blasts Wednesday, Gaza's Hamas rulers deployed their most elite forces to contain the rowdy crowd.

Hamas is seeking to flex its muscle ahead of a potential new border agreement with Egypt that the extremists hope will help end a two-year-old blockade imposed by Israel and the West. The group called for a three-way meeting among Hamas, Egypt, and the Palestinian Fatah movement of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to try to come up with a new border arrangement for Gaza.

"If the leadership in Ramallah refuses this call, we will not stand idle until the siege overruns life in Gaza," Hamas said in a statement.

The border breach provided a popularity boost to Hamas, which can say it successfully broke through the closure that has deprived the coastal strip of normal trade and commerce.

Yesterday, Egyptian forces shot in the air, fired water cannons, and - in a particularly forceful display - deployed dogs to hinder the flow of Gazans into Egypt. Dogs are considered impure by observant Muslims. As bulldozers ripped down the wall and Gazans jumped over, soldiers ran with their dogs to chase the infiltrators.

Egypt has rejected any suggestion of assuming responsibility for the territory - a hot issue in light of comments this week by Israeli officials who said the border breach could relieve the Jewish state of its burdens in Gaza.

Israel withdrew its troops and settlers from the territory in 2005, but it still controls access into and out of Gaza, in addition to the strip's airspace and harbors. Israel also provides the fuel needed to run Gaza's only power plant - the withholding of which is causing severe power outages.

In an interview published yesterday, Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak decried the situation in Gaza as "unacceptable" and called on Israel to "lift its siege" and "solve the problem." He also invited rival Palestinian factions to Cairo for talks but set no date.

A car bomb

yesterday killed one of Lebanon's top terrorism investigators, who was probing assassinations of prominent anti-Syrian figures and others.

The attack

also killed his bodyguard and three passersby and wounded 37 people.

Capt. Wissam Eid,

31, worked for the police intelligence agency, which is closely tied to the Western-backed government.

He had survived two previous assassination attempts.

Lebanon is divided

along pro-

and anti-Syrian lines. Since 2005, the country has seen

a series of bombings, including

the assassinations of eight top anti-Syrian figures.

Eid had handled

"very important" files dealing with extremist bombings, National Police

Chief Ashraf Rifi said.

- Associated Press