The Rafah border crossing’s two day opening came to an end late yesterday afternoon.
Up to the point of closure on Sunday, approximately 726 Palestinians crossed into Palestine and 595 crossed into Egypt.
Palestinian Ministry of Interior called on Egyptian authorities to extend the opening of the crossing for more days to help ease “the existing crisis and save a disastrous situation in Gaza strip”.
Ministry spokesperson Eyad Al-Bozom said “there are more than 25,000 humanitarian cases who need to travel,” according to a statement from the ministry.
The two days opening is the first in 2016. Previous openings saw extensions from the Egyptian authorities to open but not for more than a total of four days at a time since October 2014.
The border has been officially closed since 24 October 2014 following attacks at the Qarm Al-Qawadis checkpoint by “State of Sinai”, during which at least 33 military personnel were killed. Since the attacks, the crossing has only been opened in exceptional cases or to allow for humanitarian cases to pass.
