Egyptian authorities are set to open the Rafah border crossing with the Gaza strip in North Sinai on Sunday in both directions for Palestinian passengers, after it closed during the Eid al-Fitr vacation for four days.
An official source at the crossing said that it open for stranded students, patients, humanitarian cases and those carrying residency permits, as well as passengers returning from medical treatment and work trips or from visits to other countries.
The source added that additional staff were provided on Egypt’s end to speed up procedures and facilitate the passage of passengers in both directions, in addition to providing further number of vehicles to transport them between the two sides.
Palestine’s Ministry of Interior instructed passengers to follow the set procedures to travel through the Rafah crossing on Thursday, committing to the bus schedules and to provide all required legal documents to cross.
The responsibility of the crossing is under the Palestinian Authority (PA) since it regained control of Gaza’s border crossings on November 2017 following an Egyptian-mediated reconciliation deal between PA President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party and the Hamas movement.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
