President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi of Egypt has made a rare decision
to open the Rafah crossing with Gaza for a month, allowing Palestinians to
cross during the holy period of Ramadan.
The
decision to keep the crossing open was taken “to alleviate the suffering” of
residents in the Palestinian enclave, Sisi said on Facebook late Thursday.
The
Rafah crossing is Gaza’s only gateway to the outside world not controlled by
Israel, but Egypt has largely sealed it in recent years, citing security
threats.
The last extended opening lasted three weeks in 2013, while usually
Palestinians are able to cross for a few dozen days a year.
Previous
openings of Rafah have been cut short by violence in the Sinai peninsula or
with authorities giving other reasons.
Sisi’s
announcement comes after some 60 Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire on
Gaza’s frontier earlier this week, with the victims described by Egypt’s
foreign ministry as “martyrs”.
A
total of 114 Gazans have been killed in border protests and clashes since March
30, in the run-up to the controversial opening Monday of the US embassy in
Jerusalem.
Egypt
has relations with both Israel and Gaza rulers Hamas, giving Cairo an
instrumental role in easing tensions between the two sides and alleviating the
pressure on the territory’s two million residents.
Hamas
leader Ismail Haniya paid a brief visit on Sunday to Egypt, where he met with
the director of the country’s intelligence services Abbas Kamel.
For
more than a decade Israel has imposed a crippling blockage on Gaza which it
says is necessary to isolate Hamas, with which it has fought three wars since
2008.
But
critics argue it amounts to collective punishment of the enclave’s residents,
with 47 percent suffering from food insecurity according to United Nations
figures.
An
emergency summit of the world’s main pan-Islamic body, the Organisation of
Islamic Cooperation, will be held in Istanbul on Friday.
Turkish
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has vowed the extraordinary meeting should send
a “strong message to the world” over Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians.
At
an Israeli checkpoint early Friday, Palestinians were crossing from the West
Bank town of Bethlehem to the first weekly prayers of Ramadan at Jerusalem’s
Al-Aqsa mosque compound.
Palestinians
were seen being searched with metal detectors and having their bags checked by
Israeli authorities, while at least two men in wheelchairs were pushed through
the checkpoint by border agents.
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