GAZA CITY
Egyptian authorities have decided to keep the Rafah crossing with the Gaza Strip open for a third consecutive day until Tuesday, a Palestinian official has said.
"The Egyptian authorities decided to keep the terminal open for three days instead of two in order to allow more humanitarian cases to leave the strip," Maher Abu Sabha, the head of the Palestinian border authority, told The Anadolu Agency.
On Sunday, Egypt reopened the crossing – which represents Gaza's only access to the outside world not controlled by Israel – for two days in both directions.
There has been no comment from the Egyptian authorities on the report.
Abu Sabha appealed to the Egyptian authorities to reopen the Rafah crossing permanently to help "assuage the suffering of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip."
Egypt closed the crossing on October 24 following an attack on a military site in the Sinai Peninsula that left 31 Egyptian troops dead.
Egypt has tightened its grip on the border with the blockaded Gaza Strip since last year's ouster of Mohamed Morsi – the country's first freely elected president – by the army.
Repeated crossing closures have made life even more precarious for Gaza's roughly 1.9 million residents.
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