Egypt to Open Rafah Crossing on Saturday, Sunday

Gaza, 13 Muharram 1438/14 October 2016 (MINA) – Egyptian authorities Thursday decided to open the Rafah crossing on both sides this week on Saturday and Sunday, Ma’an reported.

The crossings department at the ministry of interior in Gaza said in a statement that officials were informed by the Egyptian side of the crossing that it would be open on Saturday and Sunday for humanitarian cases and “stranded people.”

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 Muhammad Morsi in 2013 and the rise to power of President Abd al-Fattah 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.

Due to the constraints on Palestinian movement through the crossing, many Gazans are commonly barred from leaving or entering the besieged coastal enclave, some for months at a time, as the crossing is only periodically opened by Egyptian authorities, stranding Palestinians on both sides of the crossing during closures.

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.

The near decade-long Israeli blockade has plunged the Gaza Strip’s more than 1.8 million Palestinians into poverty.

The destruction from three Israeli offensives over the past six years and slow reconstruction due to the blockade led the UN in September to warn that Gaza could be “uninhabitable” by 2020. (T/R07/R01)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)