Egypt opens Gaza border for Ramadan

By Afra Aksoy

CAIRO (AA) - Egypt will open the Rafah border crossing with the embattled Gaza Strip for the entire month of Ramadan, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi said Friday.

"In order to alleviate the burden of our brothers in the Gaza Strip, I have instructed the relevant authorities to open the Rafah border gate throughout Ramadan,” al-Sisi said on his Facebook page.

Blockaded by Israel -- by air, land and sea -- since 2007, the Gaza Strip has seven border crossings linking it to the outside world.

Six of these are controlled by Israel, while the seventh -- at Rafah -- is controlled by Egypt, which has kept it closed for the most part since the country’s 2013 military coup.

Israel sealed four of its commercial crossings with Gaza in mid-2007 after Palestinian resistance movement Hamas wrested control of the strip from the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority.