Egypt does not make the reopening of the crossing conditional on the presence of Palestinian Authority (PA) guards in it, Maher Abu Sabha, the head of the Palestinian crossings authority in Gaza, said. Egypt closes the Rafah crossing on the border between the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula because of security conditions in the Egyptian peninsula, a Palestinian official said Saturday. Egypt does not make the reopening of the crossing conditional on the presence of Palestinian Authority (PA) guards in it, Maher Abu Sabha, the head of the Palestinian crossings authority in Gaza, added. He added in a statement that rumors that Egypt would reopen the border crossing only in the presence of PA guards aimed to give the residents of the blockaded Gaza Strip the wrong impression that Palestinian faction Hamas, which controls the crossing on the Palestinian side, was responsible for its closure and consequently their suffering. "Egyptian authorities told us that the crossing would continue as is [closed] because of security conditions in Sinai," Abu Sabha said. He added that Egyptian authorities also said that they would reopen the crossing two or three days every two months.
