Egypt to 'open' Rafah border for 4 days

By Hussein Mahmoud Ragab Elkabany, Hamdi Yildiz

CAIRO, Egypt (AA) - Cairo will open the Rafah border crossing linking Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula to the blockaded Gaza Strip for four days, the Palestinian Embassy in Cairo announced on Tuesday.

The embassy said in a written statement that the crossing will be opened as of Wednesday, Feb. 21, in both directions.

The Egyptian authorities however, have not confirmed the information conveyed in the statement.

The crossing had been also opened on Monday for one day in one direction (from Egypt to Gaza) to allow the return of Palestinians stuck on the Egyptian side.

The Gaza Strip, which has suffered a crippling Israeli-Egyptian air/land/sea blockade since 2007, has seven border crossings linking it to the outside world.

Six of these are controlled by Israel, while the seventh -- the Rafah crossing -- is controlled by Egypt, which has kept it tightly sealed for the most part since former President Mohamed Morsi, Egypt’s first freely elected leader, was ousted in a 2013 military coup.

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