The Palestinian Embassy in Cairo announced the Rafah border crossing will be reopened in both directions over three days for students and humanitarian cases, starting Tuesday.
(AFP Photo)
The opening of the crossing came in response to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s demands following his visit to Egypt last week, according to the embassy’s statement.
Abbas met with President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi in Cairo on Wednesday to discuss extremism, as well as the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
The Egypt-Gaza border was set to be open last week, as announced by the Palestinian Embassy in Cairo Sunday. However, after militants abducted and killed a police officer while on his way to work in the border town of Rafah last week, the Egyptian authorities postponed the border’s opening.
After the 11 January kidnapping, Deputy Head of the Rafah Crossing Sherif Abdelallah said the border would remain closed until the authorities determine the whereabouts of the abducted police officer. His body was found two days later.
The Rafah crossing is the only official border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip. It has been mostly closed since the war between Israel and Hamas during the summer of 2014, though it was occasionally reopened for a few days at a time during that period.
