Egypt opens Rafah crossing for Palestinians wounded in Israeli air strikes

The Egyptian authorities opened the Rafah border crossing with Gaza on Sunday one day ahead of the designated time for allowing students, humanitarian cases and those in need of medical care to leave the besieged territory, Reuters has reported. The crossing was closed during the Muslim Eid holiday and was scheduled to reopen today.

The Egyptian authorities sent sixteen fully-equipped ambulances into Gaza on Sunday to take some of those wounded during the Israeli air strikes to Egypt for treatment. Almost one hundred people crossed the border.

According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, the death toll for the past week in Gaza has risen to 198, including 58 children and 34 women. A further 1,230 people have been wounded.

Ten people, including two children, have been killed in Israel as a result of rockets fired from Gaza against the backdrop of Israel’s forced evictions of Palestinian families from their homes in occupied Jerusalem. The homes in Sheikh Jarrah will be given to illegal Jewish settlers in the neighbourhood.

Israel’s settler expansion policy in areas occupied since 1967 has been condemned by the European Union, the United Nations and other members of the international community as a violation of international law.

READ: Turkey proposes international force to protect Palestinians