Rafah crossing opens for two days

Palestine

Published: 2017-08-25 12:22

Last Updated: 2024-03-28 14:24


Rafah Crossing. (Wikimedia Commons)
Rafah Crossing. (Wikimedia Commons)

The Rafah crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip will be opened for two days on Sunday, August 27, and Monday, August 28th, the Palestinian embassy in Cairo declared on Thursday.

According to the embassy, Egyptian authorities decided to open the crossing to allow Palestinians trapped on the Egyptian side of the border to return to Gaza, and to allow humanitarian cases and holders of Egyptian residency cards out of the Gaza Strip.

Earlier this week, Israeli media reported that Egyptian authorities are expected to open the Rafah crossing on a regular basis in September, following the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha.

Currently without access to the Rafah crossing, many Palestinians in Gaza must rely on the Israeli-controlled Erez crossing to exit the besieged territory. However the number of Israeli exit permits granted to Palestinians from Gaza has dropped “dramatically,” Israeli NGO Gisha noted earlier this month, with the number of permits given monthly by Israel dropping to just half the amount issued in 2016.

Palestinians are often stranded on both sides of the crossing for months at a time, while tens of thousands of Gazan Palestinians intending to travel are forced to wait several months for Rafah's opening.

Despite an order by Egyptian President Abd Al Fattah al Sisi, for Rafah to be opened twice a month, the border crossing does not open regularly. According to the United Nations, during 2016, the Rafah crossing was partially opened for only 44 days. In 2015, the crossing had only been open for 21 days.