EGYPT TO REOPEN RAFAH CROSSING FOR FIVE DAYS FROM TUESDAY
Gaza City, 3 Dzul Hijja 1434/8 October 2013 (MINA) – The Gaza Strip government on Monday confirmed that Egyptian authorities planned to reopen the Rafah border crossing linking Gaza to Egypt for five days starting Tuesday.
“The border crossing will reopen to allow medical patients, those residing in other countries, Palestinians bearing foreign nationalities, and Palestinians studying in other countries to leave [the strip],” Maher Abu Sabha, head of Gaza’s Border Authority, told Anadolu Agency.
According to a statement by Gaza’s Interior Ministry, the Egyptian decision came following contacts between Gaza Prime Minister Ismail Haniya and several Egyptian government officials.
Egyptian authorities closed the border crossing last Saturday after reopening it for a three-day period to allow Palestinian pilgrims to depart the embattled strip for Saudi Arabia.
Egyptian authorities have tightened control over the border with Gaza since the army’s July 3 ouster of elected President Mohamed Morsi, Anadolu Agency quoted by Mi’raj News Agency (MINA) as reporting.
A week ago, the Palestinian government in Gaza renewed its appeal to the world’s free people to organize aid convoys to break the blockade imposed on Gaza and protect the human rights of its people.
In a press release issued following its weekly meeting on Tuesday, October 1, the government expressed its grave concern over the disastrous situation at the Rafah border crossing and the growing suffering of citizens because of its closure, appealing to the Egyptian authorities to open the crossing naturally before the movement of passengers and goods.
The Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki’s comments calling for the lifting of the blockade on the Gaza Strip, Alray report.
Spokesperson of the Palestinian health ministry in Gaza Ashraf Al-Qedra has said that the health sector is facing a crisis as basic medicines are starting to run out.
“The severe Israeli blockade on the Gaza Strip, which has been imposed for seven years, targets human medical services,” he said. “The closure of the Rafah Crossing has multiplied the deterioration of our situation.”
Al-Qedra said that the Rafah Crossing is the minor, or what “could be called alternative”, passage because delegations that bring medicines and food usually pass through it, according to Middle East Monitor (MEMO) report.
According to Al-Qedra, the closure of the Rafah Crossing has raised many problems, including gradual decreases in the ministry’s stockpile of medicines. He explained that previous shortages of medicines due to the blockade were compensated via the Rafah Crossing.
According to the spokesperson, 154 kinds of basic medicines, from a list of 460, have now run out. These include medicines for serious illnesses such as chronic diseases, blood diseases, cancers, painkillers and antipyretics. (T/P09/E1).
Mi’raj News Agency (MINA).
