Egypt opens Gaza border to returning Palestine pilgrims

By Mohamed Majed

GAZA CITY, Palestine

The Egyptian authorities have opened the Rafah border crossing with the Gaza Strip for a three-day period to allow Palestinian pilgrims to return to the blockaded coastal enclave.

"The terminal was opened today to allow 750 pilgrims to return to the strip," Hisham Odwan, director of the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing, told Anadolu Agency on Wednesday.

He said the terminal would remain open on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday -- in one direction only -- to allow Gazans to return home after performing the Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia.

On Sunday, Egypt opened the crossing for one day to allow 500 Palestinian pilgrims back into the strip.

Tightly blockaded by Israel since 2007, when Palestinian resistance group Hamas wrested control of the territory, 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 the border sealed for the most part since a 2013 military coup against the country’s first freely elected president.