Egyptian authorities on Saturday reopened the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and Gaza in both directions to allow students, patients, humanitarian cases, and residences holders in Egypt and other Arab and foreign countries and workers abroad to pass.
Set to remain open for three days, this is the first time the responsibility of the crossing will be under the Palestinian Authority (PA).
The Authority regained control of Gaza’s border crossings on November 1 following an Egyptian-mediated reconciliation deal between PA President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party and the Hamas movement.
The PA announced that the Rafah crossing would be permanently reopened, after years of Cairo allowing only intermittent exit through the vital passageway.
An Egyptian anonymous official said that additional work crews were provided from the various bodies operating at the crossing from the Egyptian side to speed up the procedures and facilitate the crossing of Palestinians in both directions, in addition to providing an additional number of vehicles for transport between the two sides.
