Egypt allows border crossings out of Gaza

The Palestinian Ministry of the Interior and National Security declared the determination of the Egyptian authorities to open the Rafah border crossing on Wednesday for arrivals only after a few days of closing both directions over Eid al-Fitr due to the recent attacks in Sinai. The Interior Ministry said in a brief statement that Arabstoday received: "After we knew from the Egyptian side about the opening  of  the Rafah crossing on Wednesday in both directions; we have been informed recently it is open for arrivals only."  The opening of Rafah crossing again came after closing it for five days on Eid al-Fitr. The director of the Rafah crossing Lieutenant Colonel Ayoub Abu Shaar confirmed that Cairo International Airport will begin on Wednesday to receive Palestinians coming from different countries all over the world who wish to cross the Egyptian territory to the Gaza Strip. The opening of the crossing, in addition to other facilities will take place, explaining that the people of Gaza Strip will feel these facilities. The Abu Shaar told the Hamas affiliated "Sawt al-Aqsa" radio station that the Rafah border crossing will reopen on Wednesday for Palestinians returning through the airport. In the meantime the director of the borders and crossings in the Palestinian government, Maher Abu Sabha, said the Rafah crossing with the Egyptian territories will open for Gaza’s travelers in both directions, after the end of the Eid holiday. Abu Sabha said in his statement that the work mechanism of the crossing is "unknown until this moment" whether it will be the same after the attack on the Egyptian soldiers in Egyptian Rafah, or whether it will work according to the facilities that were promised by President Mohamed Morsi after Eid al-fitr. He added earlier that the non-implementation of the facilities would keep the pace of the crossing work as it was known and adding the lists that was announced earlier of people with humanitarian cases, owners of residency permissions, foreign passports and patients who have external medical care by the Ministry of Health. The president of the Palestinian Egyptian Association, Adel Abdul-Rahman had confirmed that the opening of the Rafah crossing in addition to additional facilities would be after Eid al-Fitr, explaining that the people of Gaza Strip will use these facilities. Abdul Rahman's remarks came during a collective Iftar party “Ramadan breakfast party” held by the Palestinian Egyptian Society for the Egyptian community in Gaza Strip, and who got most of their citizenship recently. Abdul Rahman revealed the Egyptian ambassador to the Palestinian Authority, Yasser Othman promised a breakthrough in the Rafah crossing crisis after Eid al-Fitr and said that more facilities will be granted to the Palestinian people and to the Egyptian community in the Gaza Strip. The number of those who registered to travel increased since the closure of the Rafah crossing on 6 August to thousands due to the end of the holidays of the Palestinian expatriates who have to visit their relatives in the Gaza Strip as well as for students and other groups to travel. The closure of the crossing prevented nearly three thousand pilgrims from performing Umrah in the last ten days of Ramadan which had cost the pilgrims companies and pilgrimage enormous losses. In contrast Israeli media reports the number of Israeli tourists in the region is increasing despite the deteriorating security situation in Sinai. According to high-level sources at the crossing, thousands of Israelis have entered Sinai in recent times and more than 70 passenger buses of Israelis have moved from Upper Galilee to the Sinai Peninsula during the past two days. The second channel quoted in the report of its correspondent on Tuesday from eyewitnesses inside the crossing, the situation at the crossing is unbearable and they wait for long hours in queues, which made some travelers suffer from some cases of injury, fainting, and headache due to the high temperatures there. Egyptian hotels in Sinai had been working on lowering the prices to attract tourists, including Israelis to visit Sinai. The Israeli Counter-Terrorism Bureau has issued several warnings  because of  Israeli tourists kidnappings, urging them to leave Sinai immediately.