Hamas urges Egypt to reopen Rafah crossing

Islamic Hamas authorities in the Gaza Strip organized Sunday a sit-in at the Rafah border crossing with Egypt, urging the Egyptian government to reopen the terminal which was closed after the ouster of Egypt's Islamist president Mohammed Morsi last year. A number of Hamas officials and lawmakers demanded that Egypt fully reopen the terminal for the movement of stranded travelers and goods. Since toppling Morsi, the new army-backed Egyptian government has been partly opening the Rafah crossing, allowing the entry of only patients, students in foreign countries and holders of foreign visas and passports. Cairo accuses Hamas, an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood group, of interfering in Egypt's affairs and aiding Islamist militants targeting the Egyptian army in neighboring Sinai Peninsula. Consequently, Egypt has destroyed hundreds of smuggling tunnels dug under their shared border and closed the Rafah crossing, Gaza' s main door to the outside world. Meanwhile, Hamas government announced recently that only 28,000 people left Gaza through the Rafah terminal in the second half of last year. However, the number of travelers in the first half of 2013 was 123,000. Gaza has two crossings with Israel, but they are subject to strict restrictions since Hamas takeover of Gaza in 2007. Sit-in organizers said the five-day activity is also meant to protest the blockade Israel imposed on Gaza seven years ago. "Egypt should open the crossing now, they (the Egyptians) should not blockade us like the Israelis," Hamas official, Hammad al-Regeb, told reporters during the sit-in. Hamas members of the idle Palestinian parliament have also held a session at a tent in the protest in which they discussed the consequences of the crossing closure. The sit-in coincides with a partial two-day opening of the crossing for Palestinian pilgrimages travelling to Saudi Arabia for a worshipping journey.