HAMAS ASKS EGYPT TO OPEN RAFAH CROSSING IMMEDIATELY
Gaza, 1 Shawwal 1435/28 Juyi 2014 (MINA) – Hamas Movement asked Egypt on Sunday night to open the Rafah border crossing immediately for free traffic of passengers and aid convoys.
Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman in Gaza, said that Egypt is called upon to open the border terminal without further delay in view of the ongoing Israeli massacres.
Barhoum’s terse statement invited more aid convoys to break the siege on Gaza, Palestinian Information center (PIC) quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA) as reporting.
Egypt under the rule of its new president Abdulfattah al-Sisi has been tightly closing the border crossing with Gaza and opening it only at separate intervals for the travel of non-Gazans while allowing a trickle of wounded Palestinians to pass for treatment outside the beleaguered Strip.
Iran calls for Egypt’s “urgent cooperation”
Meanwhile, Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has called for Egypt’s “urgent cooperation” to facilitate the delivery of relief aid to the Gaza Strip amid the Israeli regime’s offensive against the blockaded enclave.
“Egypt’s urgent cooperation especially in paving the ground for speeding up the dispatch of food and humanitarian aid to Gaza is very effective,” Zarif said in a telephone conversation with his Egyptian counterpart Sameh Hassan Shoukry on Sunday.
The top Iranian diplomat further expressed the Islamic Republic’s readiness to send humanitarian aid to Gaza immediately, adding, Tehran is also “ready to admit injured Palestinians to Iranian hospitals,” Press TV quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA) as reporting, Monday.
The Egyptian foreign minister, for his part, voiced hope that the ground would be prepared for sending aid supplies to Gaza at the first opportunity.
Tehran has repeatedly called on Cairo to reopen the Rafah border crossing to facilitate flow of food and medical supplies to war-stricken Gazans.
Israeli warplanes and tanks have been pounding numerous sites inside the besieged Gaza Strip and killing innocent residents of the impoverished Palestinian enclave since July 8.
The Palestinian death toll from 20 days of aerial and ground assaults on Gaza now stands 1062, with more than 6,000 people wounded. According to latest reports, hospitals in the besieged coastal sliver are in desperate need of help, including medicines and equipment. (T/P02/E01)
Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)
