Cairo, November 5 (RHC)-- Palestine has asked the Egyptian government to reopen the Rafah border crossing closed by Cairo following deadly attacks in the Sinai Peninsula. The Palestinian ambassador to Egypt, Jamal al-Shobaki, asked Cairo on Tuesday to reopen the border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip.
Last month, Egyptian authorities sealed the crossing -- Gaza's only land terminal that bypasses Israel -- after the October 24 attacks targeting Egyptian military personnel killed 33 Egyptian soldiers.
The Palestinian envoy said he had asked the Egyptian foreign minister to reopen the crossing for special cases, such as enabling the return of the Palestinians, who had received treatment abroad for injuries sustained in Israel’s summer war on Gaza. The war killed about 2,140 Palestinians and left more than 11,000 others injured.
Shobaki said Egypt promised to reopen the crossing after the army finished the operation against the militants behind the attack. The Israeli regime has also indefinitely shut down border crossings to the besieged Palestinian coastal territory.
The Tel Aviv regime imposed the restriction on the Erez and Kerem Shalom crossings on Sunday until further notice, citing the alleged firing of a projectile from the Gaza Strip towards Eshkol Regional Council.
Gaza has been blockaded since 2007, a situation that has caused a decline in the standard of living, unprecedented levels of unemployment, and unrelenting poverty.
