Rafah crossing opened for 4 days

Egypt opened the Rafah border crossing for four days today, the Palestinian borders and crossings committee said.

The committee said that seven busloads of passengers were transported to the Abu Yousif Al-Najjar Sports Centre in the southern Gaza city of Khan Yunis before they were sent to the crossing.

Priority was given to passengers who didn’t make it through the crossing when it was last opened three weeks earlier.

The director for the Palestinian side of Rafah crossing, Hisham Udwan, expressed his appreciation of the Egyptian decision to reopen the crossing.

“We view the opening of Rafah crossing for a second time in three weeks as a very positive move, hoping that it will be open permanently to ease the crisis the Gaza population is suffering from,” he said.

Egypt has upheld an Israeli military blockade on the Gaza Strip since the overthrow of the first democratically elected President Mohamed Morsi in 2013.