CAIRO: After more than four months of almost uninterrupted opening, the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt will be closed for six days during the Eid El-Adha holiday. The crossing will be closed on Nov. 15-20 for Eid and it has also been decided that starting Dec. 26, the crossing will be closed every Friday and Saturday as well as on official public holidays. A source in North Sinai told Daily News Egypt that this was not a political decision, but possibly more an administrative one “to give the government employees working at the crossing time off.” Recently, residents of Gaza have been using the crossing as a conduit to Saudi Arabia where they will participate in the Hajj pilgrimage this season. A total of 5,000 Gazans with permits have crossed through the crossing and have been escorted to airports inside Egypt to head to Saudi Arabia. Around 700 of them came in through the crossing last Saturday. Long a source of tension between Egypt and the Hamas government in the enclave, the Rafah crossing had been opened only intermittently in the past three years since Fatah lost Gaza to its rival faction. However, near the end of June and after the Israeli attack on the Gaza aid flotilla — which resulted in the death of nine activists — Egypt decided to open the crossing on a permanent basis and has done so ever since. Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said last Thursday as the pilgrims began crossing through the border that efforts were being made to improve relations between Hamas and Egypt. “We consider Gaza a shield, a real source of protection for Egyptian security, and that's what everyone should realize,” he said while accompanying the pilgrims, the Palestinian Maan news agency reported. Gaza has been under siege since 2007, and the Rafah crossing point is the only exit not controlled directly by Israel, which has closed off all other border crossings on its side. German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle visited Gaza Monday after a visit to Israel the previous day and stated that the continued blockade of the people of Gaza was “not acceptable.” “The blockade of Gaza supports extremism and weakens the moderates and we should not forget that Gaza is part of the two-state solution and that is what we are working for,” he said during his visit, during which he refused to meet with Hamas officials.
