Egypt opens Gaza’s Rafah crossing after nearly 80 days

Egyptian authorities have allowed the opening of the Rafah crossing east of the country to the besieged Gaza Strip after nearly three months of closure.

According to the reports, the reopening on Saturday, which would last for three days and comes on a humanitarian basis, is meant to reduce the increasing number of people stranded on both sides of the frontier.

It has been a routine for Egypt over the past 10 years to keep Rafah closed in what many call Cairo’s alignment with the illegal Zionist entity against the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas, the dominant force in Gaza. Hamas only recently ceded administrative control of the enclave to the Palestinian Authority, the organization that controls the occupied West Bank, in an Egyptian-brokered unity deal meant to ease frictions between the two sides. Hamas forces withdrew from Rafah and another crossing to the occupied territories in early November.

Many sought to link the Saturday opening to the Palestinian Authority’s amicable ties with Egypt. However, there was no report that the two sides had reached an agreement to run the crossing on a regular basis, which the regime in Tel Aviv has fiercely opposed over the past years.

SS