Egyptian authorities opened the Rafah crossing between Egypt and the besieged Gaza Strip on Sunday morning for the second of three days during which Egypt decided to open the terminal for humanitarian cases. According to the Palestinian borders and crossings committee, 325 passengers left Gaza to travel to Egypt on Saturday, including holders of Egyptian passports. In addition, 183 passengers arrived to Gaza from Egypt through the crossing. The committee highlighted that two Palestinians who died in Egypt were brought to Gaza for burial via Rafah. Egyptian authorities denied 11 Palestinians entry into Egypt on Saturday, the reasons for the denials being unknown. more

Egyptian authorities closed the Rafah crossing between Egypt and the besieged Gaza Strip on Wednesday after four days of opening it in both directions. The Gaza borders and crossings committee said that 2,624 Palestinians were permitted to leave the besieged coastal enclave during the four days, including humanitarian cases and Egyptian passport holders. The committee added that the Gaza Strip received 3,095 Palestinians returning to the small Palestinian territory, while Egyptian authorities denied passage to 203 passengers for unspecified reasons. The crossing initially opened on Saturday for three days, but Egyptian authorities decided on Monday to keep the crossing open on Tuesday. Two travelers died “of natural causes” at the crossing on Sunday, the Palestinian border committee said on Monday, without providing further details on the circumstances surrounding the deaths. However, many of the Palestinians who are given priority to leave the blockaded Palestinian enclave are see...

Two travelers died “of natural causes” at the Rafah crossing on Sunday, on the second of a three-day opening of the border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian border committee said in a statement. The committee did not provide further details on the circumstances surrounding the deaths, nor was it clear whether the deceased were entering or exiting Gaza. However, many of the Palestinians who are given priority to leave the blockaded Palestinian enclave seek medical treatment abroad. The committee added that some 685 Palestinians were able to leave the besieged Palestinian territory on Sunday, while 1,340 travelers crossed into Gaza. The committee added that Egyptian authorities denied entrance to 40 Palestinians for unknown reasons. Egypt opened Rafah crossing on Saturday after 38 days of closure, announcing the crossing would be opened for a total of three days for humanitarian cases. Egypt has upheld an Israeli military blockade on the Gaza Strip since the...

Egyptian authorities closed the Rafah border crossing with the Gaza Strip on Saturday morning after it operated for five consecutive days, allowing “humanitarian cases” to pass through in both directions. Gaza's borders and crossings committee said in a statement on Sunday that 2,664 passengers, the majority of whom were humanitarian cases, were able to leave the besieged Gaza Strip to Egypt during the five day opening. In addition to approved humanitarian cases, holders of Egyptian passports were among the passengers who left from Gaza to Egypt. The statement added that 1,443 passengers traveled to the Gaza Strip from Egypt. Meanwhile, Egyptian authorities denied 362 passengers entry to the Gaza Strip without providing explanation. more

Egyptian authorities opened the Rafah crossing between the besieged Gaza Strip and Egypt for the second consecutive day on Tuesday, according to the Palestinian Border and Crossing Committee. Egyptian authorities announced on Sunday that they would open the Rafah crossing for five consecutive days, beginning Monday morning and ending Friday evening, only for humanitarian cases, students, holders of Egyptian passports, patients and visa holders. According to the committee, 386 “humanitarian cases” were able to pass through the crossing on Monday. Egyptian authorities closed the crossing gate on Tuesday morning after four buses left the Gaza Strip towards Egypt. The committee noted that Egyptian authorities denied access to the Egyptian side to 30 travelers for unknown reasons, while 274 travellers who had been stranded at the Egyptian side of the crossing were finally able to cross into Gaza. more

GAZA (Ma’an) -- Egyptian authorities temporarily opened the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the besieged Gaza Strip on Tuesday to allow a number of Palestinian worshipers through on their way to Saudi Arabia to perform the annual Muslim pilgrimage of Hajj. Egypt decided to open the crossing for three days in order for some 2,008 Gazan pilgrims who were able to obtain visas to use the Cairo airport to travel to Mecca. However, procedures for Palestinians to return to Gaza following their pilgrimage were still undetermined on Tuesday. Egypt has upheld an Israeli military blockade on the Gaza Strip for the majority of the past three years, since the ouster of President Muhammad Morsi in 2013 and the rise to power of Abd al-Fattah al-Sisi in Egypt. While the Egyptian border has remained the main lifeline for Gazans to the outside world, Egyptian authorities have slowly sealed off movement through the border since Morsi was toppled by the Egyptian army. more

Egypt opened its border crossing with the Gaza Strip on Wednesday morning in order to allow Gazans in urgent need to enter and exit the besieged Palestinian enclave. The terminal is set to remain open for five days in the coming week, not including Friday. The short break in heavy border restrictions comes as Israel's military blockade of the Gaza Strip approaches nearly a decade. Gaza's 1.8 million residents continue to struggle to meet their basic needs due to severe constraints on goods coming in and out. While the Egyptian border has remained the main lifeline for Gazans to the outside world, Egyptian authorities have slowly sealed off movement through the border since democratically-elected president Mohamed Morsi was toppled by the Egyptian army in 2013. The sustained closures rose amid accusations by Egyptian authorities that Hamas was backing militants who have carried out deadly attacks on security forces in the Sinai Peninsula that borders the Palestinian territo...

GAZA, (PIC)-- The Egyptian authorities on Sunday morning opened the Rafah border crossing for the fourth day for the travel of a limited number of passengers. Only 10 buses carrying a total of 1,008 passengers had left Gaza yesterday through the Rafah crossing. According to the border and crossings authority in Gaza, five ambulances carrying a number of wounded and sick citizens also crossed into the Egyptian side on Saturday. Last Thursday, 369 Palestinian passengers, who were stranded in Egypt, were able to enter Gaza, while the Egyptian authorities rejected the travel requests of 40 others and prevented them from leaving Gaza. more

Egyptian authorities have decided to temporarily reopen the Rafah crossing with the besieged Gaza Strip for four days, the Palestinian borders and crossings committee announced on Tuesday. The committee said that the Rafah crossing would reopen in both directions on Wednesday for four days. The reopening would affect humanitarian cases and emergencies. Egypt has only opened the Rafah crossing on a sporadic basis in recent years. Earlier in May, it reopened the crossing for two days, with only several hundred of the more than 30,000 passengers registered to cross making it through. more

Egyptian authorities reopened the Rafah crossing with the besieged Gaza Strip for the second day in a row on Thursday, after an 85-day closure. The Gaza crossings committee said that 443 Palestinians were able to enter Egypt on Wednesday, while an untold number of Palestinians stuck abroad were able to re-enter the Gaza Strip. Seven buses and several ambulances were also admitted through the crossing during the day, according to the committee. Priority was given to Egyptian passport holders, humanitarian cases, students and Palestinians with foreign residency. Egyptian authorities also allowed cement trucks to enter the Palestinian side via the crossing. The Gaza Ministry of Interior said on Wednesday that the two-day opening was too short a time to process the more than 30,000 passengers registered to cross and waiting for their turn, including humanitarian cases, students who attend schools abroad, patients in need of treatment outside of Gaza, and visa holders who live and work ...

Hundreds of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip gathered in the southern city of Khan Younis after the Egyptian authorities in a rare move on Saturday decided to open the Rafah crossing to Egypt. It will be the first time the crossing has been opened this year. Located on the besieged strip’s southern border, Egypt announced Rafah will be open in both directions for two days. Gaza’s Ministry of Interior told Ma’an that 765 Palestinians had been approved to travel on Saturday. According to authorities in Gaza, over 25,000 people with urgent needs -- including around 3,500 medical cases -- are registered and waiting to cross. Only a fraction of those registered and waiting are likely to gain passage through the crossing. Following the announcement, hundreds of Palestinians filtered south to the Abu Yousif An-Najjar sports center, where the ministry typically checks and selects Gaza residents for travel to Egypt. more

It was extremely difficult for Maher Shawa to accept that the two-day window during which the Rafah crossing opened for humanitarian cases earlier this month had closed before he could get through. The 67-year-old is in urgent need of heart surgery. He was due to receive treatment, he said, in a Jordanian hospital, where he’d had a first operation in 2004. “I have my papers completed, and I should have been able to cross the border this time,” Shawa, who spent six years in Israeli prison, said. “I am dying here.” Shawa is among the thousands of priority cases who have applied for permission to leave Gaza for medical treatment or study abroad, or because they hold foreign passports. But Egypt has kept Rafah crossing — the sole point of exit and entry for the vast majority of the 1.8 million Palestinians in tiny Gaza — almost entirely closed since October 2014. Majed Lola and his wife had stayed at the terminal for three consecutive nights in cold weather in order to cross. T...

GAZA CITY (Ma’an) – The Egyptian authorities on Sunday notified the Gazan Ministry of Interior that the Rafah border crossing would be open for three days starting Monday to allow Gazans to leave for the holy Muslim Hajj pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia's Mecca, Gazan officials said. The Hamas-run Ministry of Interior said in a statement that the Egyptian authorities would only allow pilgrims access through the terminal. The Rafah crossing, Gaza's only connection to the outside world, has been virtually closed since October 2014, allowing only a fraction of Gazans to leave or enter the blockaded enclave. Last month Egyptian authorities opened the crossing for four days, allowing 2,579 humanitarian cases to leave Gaza while 3,178 people were permitted entry to the coastal enclave. In late June, Egyptian authorities agreed to keep the crossing open for a week, the longest period so far this year. The 1.8 million residents of the Gaza Strip have lived under a strict Israeli blockad...

GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Egyptian authorities closed the Rafah crossing with Gaza on Friday after it had been open for four days to allow emergency cases through, a Gaza official said. Iyam al-Bazem, spokesperson for the Ministry of Interior, said that 2,579 humanitarian cases left Gaza while 3,178 people entered the coastal territory. Egypt prevented 146 Palestinians from leaving Gaza, he added. Some 17,000 Palestinians need to urgently leave the territory, either for medical treatment or to continue their studies abroad, al-Bazem said. Egypt did not indicate when the crossing would next be opened. The Rafah crossing, Gaza's only connection to the outside world, has been virtually closed since October 2014, allowing only a fraction of Gazans to leave or enter the blockaded enclave. more

The Hamas-run Ministry of the Interior in the Gaza Strip on Saturday sent an urgent request to the Egyptian authorities to open the Rafah crossing and allow humanitarian cases to exit the beleaguered coastal enclave. Iyad al-Buzm, a spokesperson for the ministry, said in a statement that conditions in Gaza represent a "humanitarian catastrophe," with up to 20,000 humanitarian cases and thousands of other Palestinians waiting to leave the territory. He warned that the continued closure of the border crossing into Egypt threatens the lives of hundreds of patients with cancer and heart and lung-related illnesses, who are in urgent need of operations. He said that it also threatens the future of thousands of students and holders of foreign passports. Al-Buzm said that the Egyptian authorities have only opened the Rafah crossing for 15 days since the beginning of this year. more

CAIRO (Ma'an) -- Egyptian forces on Saturday discovered and destroyed a 1.5 kilometer smuggling tunnel beneath the Gazan border, the Egyptian army said. Egyptian security sources told Ma'an that the tunnel was found by Egyptian border guards in the Dayniya area south of Rafah. They said that eight sacks of explosive TNT material and a half-ton of C-4 -- another explosive material -- had been found inside the tunnel. Both the tunnel and the explosive material were destroyed by the army. Smuggling tunnels have served as a lifeline to the outside world for Gaza's 1.8 million inhabitants since Israel imposed a crippling siege on the coastal enclave in 2007, which is supported by Egypt. While the tunnels are used by Hamas as a source of tax revenue and inflow of weapons, they also supply highly-demanded necessities for Gazans including food, medicine, as well as infrastructure materials including concrete and fuel. Egypt has sought to destroy the tunnels as part of an ongo...

GAZA CITY (Ma’an) -- Egyptian authorities will open the Rafah crossing with Gaza on Tuesday for three days, a Palestinian crossings official said. Maher Abu Sabha told Ma'an that the crossing --Gaza's only connection to the outside world -- will be open both ways until Thursday. The crossing closed last Friday after having been open for seven consecutive days, a rare exception for the border terminal which has otherwise been virtually sealed by Egypt since October 2014. Thousands of medical patients, students, and foreign residents used the crossing over the past week. Egyptian authorities have done little to alleviate Israel's eight-year blockade on the Gaza Strip, compounding the devastating effects of a blockade which severely restricts imports, exports and prevents 1.8 million Palestinians from freely leaving and entering the Gaza Strip. Israel first imposed a blockade on Gaza in 2006 after Hamas rose to power in democratic elections. more

GAZA CITY (Ma'an) -- Egyptian authorities will re-open the Rafah border for traffic crossing both ways for three days this week, officials say. The Palestinian Authority was informed of the decision to open the crossing after President Mahmoud Abbas had contacted his Egyptian counterpart on the matter, General Director of the PA's Crossings and Border Department, Nathmi Mhanna told Ma'an. Mhanna thanked the Egyptian president and Egyptian security parties, emphasizing that the PA is continuing its efforts to ease the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza and hopes the crossing remains open for the duration of Ramadan and after. The decision was made shortly after Egyptian security sources reported Saturday that the country’s president Abd al-Fattah al-Sisi would soon make decisions towards opening the Rafah crossing in the southern Gaza Strip on a more regular basis. Sisi opened Rafah during the first week of Ramadan to "ease the humanitarian situation of the Palestini...

The Egyptian authorities opened the Rafah crossing in both directions on Saturday, and is expected to keep the crossing open for the next three days, ministry says. The Gaza Ministry of Interior announced the opening, noting that is was the first time the crossing was opened since Egyptian authorities had allowed Palestinians stuck in Egypt to return to Gaza last month, opening Rafah for one day in one direction. Some 15,000 Gazans registered at the Ministry of Interior are currently waiting to travel via Rafah, including 3,000 patients and more than 2,500 students. The number registered is a fraction of the 1.8 million residents who have remained under the Israeli-imposed blockade since 2007 and struggle to meet their basic needs due to restrictions on goods coming in and out of the strip. Saturday's much-needed opening comes as Egyptian authorities have done little to alleviate Israel's blockade on the Gaza Strip, keeping the Rafah crossing -- Gaza's only connection to th...

Egyptian authorities will open the Rafah crossing with Gaza for three days next week, a Palestinian Authority official said Wednesday. Nathmi Muhanna, general director of border crossings, told Ma'an that Egypt notified his department that the terminal will be open Saturday, Sunday, and Monday in both directions. Priority will be given to Palestinians with foreign passports, students and patients seeking medical treatment. Use of the crossing will be based on lists of travelers already registered with Gaza' Ministry of Interior. Egyptian authorities have done little to alleviate Israel's blockade on the Gaza Strip, keeping the Rafah crossing -- Gaza's only connection to the outside world -- virtually sealed since October 2014. more