More than 25,000 Gazans waiting to pass through Rafah Crossing

Palestinian interior ministry in Gaza said yesterday that more than 25,000 Palestinians in Gaza urgently need to enter Egypt through the Rafah Crossing for humanitarian reasons, Arabi21 reported.

Speaking exclusively to Arabi21, ministry spokesman Iyad Al-Bozom said: “Friday is the second and final day that Egypt is opening the crossing… Only two buses of travellers could pass,” noting that work has been “very slow” during the opening times.

Al-Bozom said that only 500 Palestinians passed through the crossing on both Thursday and Friday. “This is a very low number compared to the people in urgent need of travel, whose number exceeds 25,000,” he said.

He noted that these people include patients, students, workers, foreign passport holders and mothers and fathers hoping to reunite with their families.

The spokesman called on the Egyptian authorities to extend the opening time of the crossing in order to let as much many Gazans as possible to travel through it.

The Rafah Crossing is Gaza’s only access to the outside as it shares all its other border points with Israel, which uses its crossing points to arrest Palestinians.

Israel has imposed a crippling siege on the Gaza Strip with the help of Egypt, limiting the movement of goods and people, and harming the enclaves infrastructure and living conditions.