Hamas Prime Minister starts tour of Muslim nations

Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, for the first time since 2007, left the Gaza Strip Sunday on a tour that will take him to a number of Arab and Islamic countries. Haniya is due to visit Egypt, Sudan, Qatar, Turkey, Tunisia and Bahrain. The primary purpose of the trip is to obtain "help and aid" to rebuild Gaza City. Haniya entered Egypt through the Rafah crossing, recently opened after remaining largely shut since June 2006 when Israel imposed a several-year-long blockade. The blockade was tightened a year later when the Islamist Hamas seized control of the territory after winning a free and fully democratic election in the Gaza Strip, ousting forces loyal to the Western-backed Palestinian Authority. The Mubarak-ruled Egypt had complied with the Israeli restrictions, although it occasionally opened Rafah - the only Gaza crossing that bypasses Israel - to allow aid in and students and medical cases out. But three months after Egyptian Dictator Hosni Mubarak was toppled in a revolution in May, Egypt officially reopened its Rafah border crossing with Gaza, allowing people to cross freely for the first time in four years. Haniya's regional tour begins three days after Palestinian factions, including Hamas, met in Cairo to thrash out implementation of a surprise deal they signed in April. The two factions had previously been at loggerheads ever since Hamas won the election in Gaza in 2007, leaving the Palestinian territories with rival administrations.