CAIRO-Egyptian authorities said Sunday they would close the Rafah border crossing on the border with the Gaza Strip for three days starting September 10, a security official at the border told he Middle East News Agency (MENA) . "More than 75,235 Palestinians have crossed Egypt's border with Gaza since it was opened after Israel's attack on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla," an Egyptian official added. The official at the crossing in the border town of Rafah said that 36,240 Palestinians were granted entry to Egypt, while 39,111 had crossed into the Gaza Strip. Tonnes of medical supplies, food, and other aid items have also been driven into Gaza, and Palestinians have travelled to Egypt for medical help, according to the official. Meanwhile, one Palestinian was killed and two injured in an Israeli air strike on smuggling tunnels in southern Gaza along the border with Egypt, medical sources at the hospital in the border town of Rafah said. The sources said that at least one Palestinian was still missing. The latest violence coincides with the first direct peace talks in nearly two years between Israel and the Palestinians in Washington. Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas are aiming to secure a peace deal within a year despite opposition within their own camps.
