The Rafah crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip – the only territory border crossing that bypasses Israel- reopened this Saturday morning, breaking a six month long closure for Palestinians and Egyptians stranded in the Gaza Strip since Egypt sealed the border with Gaza last February. This action led to a flow of some 400 Palestinian patients leaving Gaza for medical treatment in Egypt, along with 300 Egyptian citizens returning to their homeland.
Today, some 700 people, both from Gaza and Egypt, will be allowed to leave the Strip through the Rafah border crossing. Amongst those 700 people are 400 patients from Gaza who will be allowed to leave on Sunday for medical treatment in Egyptian hospitals.
Along with the Palestinian patients, 300 Egyptian citizens will also be allowed to leave the Strip and return to their homeland after having been stuck in Gaza since last February, when Egypt closed the Rafah crossing.
In total, around 2,000 people are expected to cross the border over the weekend, said Mohamed Odwan, the spokesman of the crossings department in Gaza Strip.
The crossing will be open from 8.00 A.M to 8.00 P.M today and will remain open on Sunday for the same hours. Since 8 o’clock this morning, 300 Egyptians in 6 buses were waiting to cross the border. Those Egyptians stranded in Gaza have been living in a school in Rafah for the last 6 months, while calling repeatedly on their government to reopen the border.
Since June 2007, Israel has imposed a severe blockade on the Gaza Strip, carrying out an isolation policy on the Strip by restricting freedom of movement for goods and people, and allowing only limited humanitarian goods to Gaza.
As a consequence of both Israeli and Egyptian travel restrictions, few Gazans are permitted to leave the Strip.
Opening a crossing point in Gaza was an emergency as the health situation in the isolated territory has been worsening by the day. A total of 241 patients have died due to the Israeli siege which has emptied all hospitals from the basic medical supplies and equipment, while the patients have been barred from leaving the Gaza Strip for medical treatment elsewhere.
This solidarity gesture from the Egyptian authorities occurs a couple of days after the two boats from the Free Gaza movement left the Gaza strip to go to Cyprus.
The boats ‘SS Free Gaza’ and ‘SS Liberty’, filled with 47 international activists broke last week the Israeli siege on the strip by entering Gaza through territorial waters. The boats left the Gaza Strip for Cyprus on Thursday, and arrived safely today in Larnaca harbour in Cyprus, carrying with them several Palestinians who have been previously denied exit visas by the Israeli authorities.
The new Palestinian members of the crew includes a 10-year-old boy who has lost his left leg from the hip down due to an Israeli tank shell explosion with aim of fitting an artificial leg in Cyprus, along with a Palestinian mother and her four children who were reunited with her Cyprus-based brother after a decade.
To the organizers, by freely travelling to Gaza, the Free Gaza Movement “forced the Israeli government to issue a fundamental policy change regarding their military and economic blockade of Gaza. Until now, Israel has wanted absolute control of Gaza with no responsibility. Israel has managed to maintain this situation, in spite of international law, because its policies have never been challenged.”
The activists have promised to return to Gaza with another delegation soon, and they have encouraged the United Nations, the Arab League and the international community to organize similar human rights and humanitarian efforts.
Today’s gesture from the Egyptian authorities to open the Rafah crossing might be interpreted as a sign that the Arab countries are also now moving to show international support to the Gazan people, challenging the ongoing siege on the Strip and, slowly, softening the living conditions of people in Gaza.
Dr. Mustafa Barghouthi, the General Secretary of the Palestinian Initiative, who has been an outspoken critic of the siege on Gaza and has made countless calls for it to be ended immediately highlighted, in regard of today’s events, that: “Any creative actions held by the International community - both from Arab countries and common citizens- to break the siege on Gaza should be supported, to break the siege together.”
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