Egypt opens Rafah border crossing for additional day

On Sunday, Egypt opened the Rafah border crossing for two days, allowing many people, who had been waiting since it closed two months ago following a terror attack in the Sinai peninsula, to cross the border with the Gaza Strip in both directions. On Monday, Egyptian authorities announced they were opening the border crossing for another day.

During the first two days, almost 1,000 people passed through the border crossing, about two thirds of them from the Gaza Strip to Egypt and a third in the opposite direction. Gaza citizens who had been stuck in Egypt as they were unable to enter the Gaza Strip, were able to return home. Director of Gaza Strip border corssings Maher Abu Sabha said those who crossed to the Egyptian side were people in need of medical treatment or who hold an overseas stay permit, only.

On October 24, a car bomb detonated in northern Sinai, causing the death of 31 Egyptian security personnel and injuring 30 or more. Following the attack and as part of the Egyptian authorities' long-term fight against militant islamism in the Sinai peninsula, the Rafah border crossing was closed, and opened for only two days in late November.