Regardless of who became the new president of Egypt, the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, ruled by Islamic Hamas movement, expressed hope that newly-elected Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi will help them ending more than five years of Israeli blockade and internal Palestinian division.

However, the support to the two Egyptian competitors, the Islamic candidate Morsi and the liberal candidate Ahmed Shafiq, had varied. Hamas strongly supports Morsi, where national, secular and liberal Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip supported Shafiq.

Shafiq supporters in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank were disappointed after Morsi's victory, when hundreds of Hamas supporters fired into the air, waved Egyptian flags and delivered sweets and candies to the people to express support and happiness to Morsi.

Observers and analysts in the coastal enclave had even varied: some believed that the Israeli siege that was imposed on the Gaza Strip after Hamas had violently seized control of the enclave in June 2007 will not be lifted and most likely the borders between Gaza and Egypt will be more opened.

They expressed more pessimism that the internal reconciliation between Hamas and secular President Mahmoud Abbas Fatah Party would not be implemented soon and that the peace process in the Middle East would remain stalled, where Israel would try to get rid of Gaza and give it to Egypt.

Other observers, who tried to be more realistic, believed that having an Egyptian president closed in his ideology to Hamas leaders' ideology, would help more to end the ongoing division between Gaza, ruled by Hamas, and the West Bank, ruled by Abbas and the seculars would end Gaza siege.

FOR HAMAS, MORSI IS BETTER

Mustafa al-Sawaf, a Gaza-based political analyst, affiliated with Hamas, told Xinhua that he believes that Morsi would put on top of his priorities the Palestinian file "because he is more concerned to succeed than his competitor Ahmed Shafiq. We believe that Mosi is better than Shafiq."

"The two candidates, Morsi and Shafiq, have different visions in dealing with the Gaza Strip and at the same time they have joint interests in dealing with the Palestinian cause in general. But I believe that Morsi will give more concerns to Palestine more than Shafiq because he is better to our people," said al-Sawaf.

When the Egyptian revolution managed to topple the regime of former President Hosni Mubarak, tens of thousands of Hamas supporters took to the streets and supported the revolution. Al- Sawaf said he support Morsi, "because he will make the ties between Hamas and the Egyptians much better."

Although Hamas in Gaza showed obvious strong support to the Egyptian Islamic candidate, Abu Obida, spokesman of the movement's armed wing al-Qassam Brigades denied media claims that Hamas militants had infiltrated from Gaza into Egypt for unrest in the country if Morsi fails.

HISTORIC OPPORTUNITY

The worldwide Muslim Brotherhood Movement, founded in 1928, has been waiting for a long time for gaining this historic golden opportunity to rule not only the Gaza Strip, but also dominating North African countries.

"I can say that the Muslim Brotherhood Movement is ruling longest coastal way from Gaza to Nouakchott. It is also an opportunity to check the intentions of the Muslim Brotherhood leaders and their political program in serving first the Arab and Muslim worlds issues," said Talal Oukal, a Gaza-based analyst.

He told Xinhua via phone that, during their election campaigns and even before, the leaders of the Islamic movement were presenting lots of slogans, mainly during the revolution in Egypt, "therefore, it is time to see if their words turn into deeds and their slogans become reality on the ground."

Over the past ten years, and even before, Egypt has played a central role in activating the Middle East peace process as well as in ending the violent conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, and also in trying to help the Palestinians rivals to end their division and achieve an internal reconciliation.

"I believe that reconciliation will be postponed for a longer term because Hamas, which felt weak before Morsi, is now feeling stronger and therefore Hamas would work more on ending the siege imposed on Gaza, and according to the new political balances, there will be no reconciliation," said Oukal.

WAIT AND SEE

The Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank have been always looking for a better Egyptian rule for a long time, not only helping to end the ongoing Israeli siege imposed on the Hamas- ruled enclave and achieve internal Palestinian reconciliation, but also ending the Israeli occupation.

Khalil Shahin, a West Bank-based political analyst told Xinhua that the Palestinians are in need for an Arab country that helps them reducing the United States and Israeli pressure on them to resume the stalled peace process.

"After the revolution in Egypt and after Morsi won in the elections, the Palestinians want Egypt to be always on their side and support their right in resisting the Israeli occupation and establishing the Palestinian state and also be more than a mediator in ending the ongoing division," said Shahin.

The Muslim Brotherhood Movement has been long in the opposition to rule in the region. Therefore, analysts say "so far, we don't know anything about their plans, so let's wait and see what will happen."