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Hamas urges Egypt to keep Rafah crossing open for Palestinians

Xinhua, December 5, 2015 Adjust font size:

The Islamic Hamas movement called Saturday on Egypt to keep the Rafah border crossing with the Gaza Strip permanently open to allow stranded Palestinians to freely move between the two sides.

Hamas highly appreciates Egypt's decision to re-open the terminal for two days and keep it open overnight to enable more Palestinians to travel, its spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said in an emailed press statement.

Egypt decided to re-open Rafah crossing point partially on Thursday and Friday to allow stranded Palestinians at both sides to travel.

"The Egyptian side had repeatedly informed the Palestinian factions, including Hamas, that keeping the crossing of Rafah open is linked to the stability of the security situation in Sinai," Abu Zuhri said.

Hamas has been ruling the Gaza Strip since it violently seized control of it in 2007 after weeks of fighting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas security forces.

Rafah crossing is the only exit for the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip to the outside world. However, Egypt refuses to keep it permanently open amid mounting militant attacks on police and army forces in Sinai peninsula.

Egypt's condition is that the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) restores the control of the crossing from Hamas in order to keep it open.

Hamas is an affiliate of the Muslim Brotherhood, the power base of ousted Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi, who was toppled by the military in 2013 after nationwide protests against his one-year rule.

Meanwhile, the Hamas-run corporation for crossings and borders said that it does not know if the Egyptian side will extend the opening of the crossing for more days.

About 25,000 Palestinians, including patients, students, people carrying dual nationalities, merchants and businessmen are in urgent need to travel, it said in a press statement.

It added that during the last two days, only 600 people crossed from the Gaza Strip into Egypt, while several hundreds crossed into Gaza. Endit