Egypt to re-open Gaza border after Eid
By Nangayi Guyson – El Arish – The Egyptian government security sources on Sunday said it will re-open its border with the blockaded Gaza Strip at the end of the Islamic Eid holiday period.
The Rafah crossing in the Sinai Peninsula will be open in both directions to Palestinians holding appropriate paperwork as of Monday.
The government of Egypt closed the border last Friday for the three-day Eid al-Fitr holiday which it had opened in June for what was said at the time to be an “unlimited” period following the killing of nine Turkish activists aboard a Gaza-bound aid flotilla in late May.
The blockade on Gaza’s more than 1.5 million Palestinians has been condemned as a humanitarian disaster and a “flagrant violation of international law” by the rights group Amnesty International.
However, prior to the Eid closure, the crossing had been open for the longest period in the history of the Israeli-Egyptian blockade on Gaza, which was tightened after the Islamist Hamas movement took control of the enclave in 2007.
Many Palestinians, however, said they were unable to use the crossing during this period, under the pretext that they did not have valid reasons for entering or leaving Gaza.
