Egypt opens Rafah border crossing for two days

Ahram Online , Friday 23 Mar 2018

Rafah Border
File Photo: Palestinians crossing through the Rafah Border from Egypt (Photo: AP)

Egypt opened the Rafah border crossing with the Gaza Strip on Friday for humanitarian cases for a period of two days, the Palestinian embassy in Cairo said.

This is the third opening of the border crossing this year so far.

The north Sinai crossing is the major gateway to the outside world for 1.8 million Palestinians living in the besieged coastal enclave, as it is the only border not controlled by Israel.

Egypt has largely kept the border closed in recent years due to security concerns, following the ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013.

Palestinian rivals Hamas and Fatah agreed to hand over responsibility for the Rafah crossing to a unity government as part of an Egyptian-brokered reconciliation deal in October 2017 but the deal soon collapsed.
 

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