Egypt temporarily reopens Rafah border crossing

The Egyptian government has temporarily reopened the Rafah border crossing, which had been closed by Cairo following deadly attacks in the Sinai Peninsula.

“The crossing is being opened for two days to help traffic mainly from Egypt to Gaza,” a government official said on Wednesday.

The crossing will open for four hours on Wednesday and Thursday, the official added.

Egyptian authorities sealed the crossing, which is Gaza’s only land terminal that bypasses Israel, after the attacks targeting Egyptian military personnel and killing 33 Egyptian soldiers in Sinai on October 24.

Early in November, the Palestinian ambassador to Egypt, Jamal al-Shobaki, asked Cairo to reopen the border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip.

The Palestinian envoy said he had asked the Egyptian foreign minister to reopen the crossing for special cases, such as enabling the return of the Palestinians who had received treatment abroad for injuries sustained in Israel’s summer war on Gaza. The war killed about 2,140 Palestinians and left more than 11,000 others injured.

Gaza has been blockaded since 2007, a situation that has caused a decline in the standard of living, unprecedented levels of unemployment, and unrelenting poverty.