Egypt Opens Gaza Border for Ramadan

Palestinians wait to travel to Egypt through the Rafah border crossing, in the southern Gaza Strip, on May 18, 2018. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has made a rare decision to open the Rafah crossing with Gaza for a month, allowing Palestinians to cross during the holy period of Ramadan. The decision to keep the crossing open was taken "to alleviate the suffering" of residents in the Palestinian enclave, Sisi said on Facebook late on May 17. (SAID KHATIB / AFP)

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.

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This article has been adapted from its original source.