Egypt 'to open' Gaza border for four days

An Egyptian official told Palestine's News Agency the border will open next week to allow students to go to university and patients to go to hospital.
1 min read
08 October, 2016
Families and students wait long periods of time to leave the Gaza Strip [Anadolu]
Egyptian forces are considering opening the Rafah border crossing to Gaza from Monday to Thursday this week to allow students to travel to university.

The Egyptian authorities will allow an undisclosed number oof hospital patients, students and humanitarian cases to travel from the Gaza Strip to Egypt over four days.

The border will only open twice in October and priority will be given to students who are travelling for the start of the academic year.

Following the Egyptian military coup in 2013, relations with Gaza have worsened as President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's cabinet consider Gaza's ruling party Hamas to be an extension of the now-banned Muslim Brotherhood party. 

The Rafah border opens irregularly and usually ahead of holidays or major events.

The UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has previously said that the approximately 1.8 million people living in Gaza are "locked in and denied free access to the world."