Rafah crossing to open for 3 days

Egyptian authorities announced on Thursday that they would be opening the Rafah border crossing with the Gaza Strip in both directions for three days starting today.

The Gaza borders and crossings committee said in a statement that they were informed by Egyptian authorities that the Rafah crossing would be open from today to Monday.

Separately, Egyptian security sources told Ma’an that the decision to open the border came upon order from Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi “to lessen the siege on the Gaza Strip by opening the crossing twice a month”.

Egyptian authorities closed the Rafah border crossing with the blockaded Gaza Strip on Tuesday morning after it was opened for three consecutive days, with approximately 2,000 passengers leaving the besieged coastal enclave and about 1,500 arriving from Egypt.

Throughout the opening, priority was given to “humanitarian cases” including medical patients, students studying outside of Gaza and expatriates, in addition to holders of Egyptian passports.

Egypt has upheld an Israeli military blockade on the Gaza Strip for the majority of the past three years, since the ousting of former President Mohamed Morsi in 2013 and the rise to power of Al-Sisi in Egypt.

While the Egyptian border has remained the main lifeline for Gazans to the outside world, Egyptian authorities have slowly sealed off movement through the border since Morsi was toppled by the Egyptian army.

In 2015, the Rafah crossing was closed for 344 days. The crossing has been reopened on a more regular basis since the beginning of 2016.