Hamas PM postpones Cairo security talks

Gaza's Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniya has postponed until next week a Cairo trip for top-level talks with his Egyptian counterpart Hisham Qandil, a spokesman said Thursday. Haniya had been scheduled to travel to Egypt on Thursday for discussions on security in the wake of an August 5 attack which killed 16 Egyptian border guards in the northern Sinai, which borders the Gaza Strip and Israel. "It was decided to postpone the visit of prime minister Ismail Haniya to Cairo until next week for technical reasons," Hamas spokesman Taher al-Nunu said in a statement, without giving a new date. Egyptian officials pointed the finger for the August attack at Gaza militants, saying some of the gunmen had reached Sinai through the cross-border smuggling tunnels. Cairo temporarily closed the Gaza border at Rafah and shut down or demolished scores of tunnels, a key conduit for bringing goods, fuel and building materials into the Palestinian enclave, which has been under an Israeli blockade since 2006. Hamas has insisted there is no proof that any Palestinian was involved in the deadly attack. The Daily Star