EGYPT CLOSES RAFAH CROSSING FOUR DAYS
Ramallah, 1 Shawwal 1434/8 August 2013 (MINA) – The Hamas government on Thursday said that Egypt has closed the Rafah crossing with Gaza Strip in both directions for four days.
Maher Abu Sabheh, head of Interior Ministry’s crossings directorate, said that the “the Egyptian side informed us the crossing will close for the Eid el-Fitr holidays and re-open on Sunday to allow stranded Palestinians to return to the enclave and for others to leave Gaza Strip.”
Abu Sabheh added that the “patients who are transferred to Egyptian hospitals, foreigners, Egypt nationals and humanitarian cases will be allowed to travel abroad during the four-day closure.”
The crossing is the only gateway to the world for some 1.7 million Palestinians, Saudi Gazette quoted by Mi’raj News Agency (MINA) as reporting.
He added that the Rafah crossing partially reopens since early July with strict restrictions. The official said that the Egyptian authorities allow the entry of only 150 people into Gaza Strip.
The Egyptian authorities closed the crossing on last month following an assault on Egyptian security forces in the northern Sinai, killing at least one Egyptian soldier.
The Hamas government, that seized control over the Gaza Strip from forces loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in 2007, sponsors hundreds of tunnels along the Salah Eddin route on the border between Gaza Strip and Egypt which are used to smuggle heavy equipment, people to and from Gaza as well as food and fuel to cope with Israel’s siege of the coastal enclave.
Abbas said recently that “800 millionaires and 1,600 near-millionaires control the tunnels.
Israel imposed an economic siege on Gaza Strip in June 2006 when Hamas-led armed groups kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in a cross border raid near the enclave.
Israel tightened the siege in June 2007, when Hamas routed Abbas’ security forces and ousted his Fatah movement from the area.
Palestinians and their supporters say the blockade is illegal collective punishment.
Under heavy international pressure, Israel eased the blockade in 2010 after an Israeli naval raid killed nine Turkish activists aboard the Mavi Marmara, a Gaza-bound ship.
Israel and the West consider Hamas a terrorist movement. The Quartet, which comprises the US, the EU, the UN and Russia, has asked Hamas to recognize Israel, accept peace deals and abandon violence in exchange for an international recognition of the movement. (T/P09/P04).
Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)
