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Thousands of Palestinians on waiting list at Rafah

After 85 days of closure, thousands of Palestinians rush to the borders with Egypt as Rafah crossing opens for two days.

Palestinians wait at the Rafah border/ Please Do Not Use
Palestinians begin to gather at the Rafah border crossing. Egypt opened its borders with the Gaza Strip for two days after 85 days of closure. [Wissam Nassar/Al Jazeera]
By Wissam Nassar
Published On 12 May 201612 May 2016
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Rafah border crossing, Gaza –  Egypt opened its border with Gaza for the first time in three months on Wednesday. The Rafah border crossing is the only remaining gateway for Palestinians in Gaza to the outside world, after Israel imposed a siege on the Strip in 2007.


Egypt opens Rafah border crossing to Gaza

With this total closure, 1.8 million Palestinians are “locked in and denied free access to the world”, as the United National agency, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, wrote in a report in July 2015, a condition which is weighing heavily on people’s mental wellbeing.

Some 30,000 Gaza residents are on a waiting list to cross at Rafah. Only a few thousand, including patients, students and holders of residency permits in third countries, were likely to do so on Wednesday and Thursday before it closes again.

After Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, and the Egyptian military, toppled President Mohamed Morsi in July 2013, relations with Gaza deteriorated dramatically. Egypt’s new rulers consider Hamas as an extension of the Muslim Brotherhood, which they designated as a terrorist organisation . 

Under Morsi’s rule, an average of 34,000 people crossed Rafah each month in 2012; in 2014, the border remained closed for 241 days, and in 2015 it was open for a mere 19 days.


READ MORE: Israel’s blockade keeps Gaza in the dark


Palestinians wait at the Rafah border/ Please Do Not Use
An elderly Palestinian woman waits for her turn to enter the Rafah border crossing. [Wissam Nassar/Al Jazeera]
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Palestinians wait at the Rafah border/ Please Do Not Use
A Palestinian child lies on luggage at the crossing. [Wissam Nassar/Al Jazeera]
Palestinians wait at the Rafah border/ Please Do Not Use
Israel imposed a tight air, sea and land blockade on Gaza in 2006. [Wissam Nassar/Al Jazeera]
Palestinians wait at the Rafah border/ Please Do Not Use
A woman cries as she waits at the Rafah border gate. She is one of 30.000 Gaza residents on a waiting list to cross the borders. [Wissam Nassar/Al Jazeera]
Palestinians wait at the Rafah border/ Please Do Not Use
Students, patients, people with residence permit and passport owners are allowed to cross the border. [Wissam Nassar/Al Jazeera]
Palestinians wait at the Rafah border/ Please Do Not Use
Egypt's closing of Rafah and the destruction of cross-border smuggling tunnels, as well as the siege imposed by Israel have deepened economic misery for many of the 1.9 million Palestinians in Gaza. [Wissam Nassar/Al Jazeera]
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Palestinians wait at the Rafah border/ Please Do Not Use
Only a few thousand people were expected to be allowed to cross on Wednesday and Thursday before the border crossing closes again. [Wissam Nassar/Al Jazeera]
Palestinians wait at the Rafah border/ Please Do Not Use
Under the Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, an average of 34,000 people crossed Rafah each month in 2012. In 2014, the border remained closed for 241 days, and in 2015 it was open for a mere 19 days. [Wissam Nassar/Al Jazeera]
Palestinians wait at the Rafah border/ Please Do Not Use
The blockade on Gaza leaves 1.9 million Palestinians "locked in and denied free access to the world", as the UN agency OCHA wrote in a report last July. [Wissam Nassar/Al Jazeera]


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