Sisi: Egypt did not close Rafah crossing with Gaza

President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi said yesterday that Egypt has never closed the Rafah border crossing with the besieged Gaza Strip, adding that Cairo is seeking to bring in the largest quantities of aid to relieve the suffering of more than two million Palestinians living under siege there.

Speaking at the ‘Long Live Egypt and Palestine’ conference at Cairo Stadium, Al-Sisi responded to what he described as “fallacies related to the Rafah Crossing”, including that Egypt has closed the crossing “even though it is constantly open”.

He explained that before 7 October, as many as 500 trucks entered Gaza daily, adding that Egypt would never close the crossing in light of the crisis in the Strip.

“Egypt was keen to carry out its responsibilities towards the Palestinian brothers, and has played a major role and an exceptional effort to support the Palestinian brothers,” he said, pointing out that the volume of Egyptian aid represents 75 to 80 per cent of the total aid that was brought into the Gaza Strip over the past few days.

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Human rights organisations and political parties have criticised Israel’s control over the volume of aid entering through the Rafah Crossing, and called on the Egyptian authorities to open the crossing and allow aid to flow into the Gaza Strip without waiting for Israel’s permission.

According to the mechanism agreed upon by the Egyptian authorities with the United States for the entry of aid, aid trucks head to the Al-Awja crossing to undergo inspection by the Israeli security, before returning to the Rafah crossing to enter the Gaza Strip.

Israel has threatened to strike unauthorised aid entering the Strip.