Gaza official laments humanitarian crisis in Rafah crossing closure

Keeping the Rafah crossing point between the Gaza Strip and Egypt completely closed for 25 consecutive days has left a serious humanitarian crisis, a senior Gaza official said on Thursday.
Iyad al-Bozom, spokesman of interior ministry in Gaza, which is still controlled on the ground by the Hamas movement, told reporters that "there are 30,000 residents of the Gaza Strip who need urgent travelling through the Rafah crossing."
They include students who need to study abroad and patients who need urgent medical treatment, he said.
"Leaving Rafah crossing closed for 25 days had really left a serious humanitarian crisis, because the crossing between Gaza and Egypt is the sole vein of life for Gaza Strip's population," al- Bozom said.
There are 6,000 Palestinians who are stranded at either airports of many countries or at the Egyptian side of the crossing and need to return home in Gaza.
"I don't see or find any justification for keeping the crossing closed," he said. "The crossing has never been a security burden at any time on Egypt and its security forces and no violations had been recorded over the past several years."
Al-Bozom called on the Egyptian authorities to speed up reopening Rafah crossing in both directions and to ease the flow products to help the Gaza Strip.
Wael Atyia, the Egyptian ambassador to Palestine, had earlier told Xinhua that Egypt would not operate Rafah crossing until the security campaign in Sinai ends.
He declined to give a specific date for reopening the crossing, but said "I hope it will be soon."
In late October, a blast targeted a major military checkpoint in North Sinai's Sheikh Zuweid city, leaving more than 30 Egyptian soldiers dead and dozens of others injured. Egypt announced a three-month curfew and a state of emergency in some parts of North Sinai in response to the attack, which was claimed by Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis, an extremist group that recently swore allegiance to the Islamic State (IS) group.