Egypt Reopens Border Crossing With Gaza Strip for Four Days

Cairo will open the border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip, which will work in both directions, for four days starting on Wendesday, according to local media.

CAIRO(Sputnik) – The Egyptian authorities have opened up the Rafah border crossing with the Gaza Strip for four days starting on Wednesday, local media reported.

According to the Youm7 news portal, the border crossing will work in both directions. The Egyptian border authorities will let people who need medical treatment or are returning from it, students and those who need to leave or enter Gaza for humanitarian reasons cross.

The Rafah border crossing, the main entry and exit point in Gaza, was closed after a series of October 2014 terrorist attacks that killed dozens of Egyptian security personnel. The check point currently only opens for a few days every several months.

The Gaza Strip, which borders Israel on the east and Egypt on the southwest, is part of the Palestine-controlled territories. Israel imposed a blockade on the Gaza Strip in 2007, when Hamas came to power in the exclave.

Relations between Hamas and Cairo deteriorated after the Muslim Brotherhood, ideologically close to the Palestinian organization, was removed from power in Egypt in 2013. The current Egyptian government has accused Hamas of supporting militants active in the Sinai Peninsula and introduced its own blockade of the Gaza Strip.