Dozens of Palestinian citizens demanded on Monday opening Rafah crossing in a demonstration organized in front of the crossing in the southern Gaza Strip.
Coordinator of an international initiative to help sick children in Gaza Adel Zo’rob said that 4000 patients are at the risk of death because of the siege including 1500 patients who are in need of urgent medical referrals.
The Egyptian authorities have been closing Rafah crossing almost completely for 4 months amid a tightened Israeli siege imposed on Gaza for 11 years.
The activist in the youth movement to break the siege Qasem al-Yazji called on the Egyptian authorities to open Rafah crossing for the stranded citizens and patients especially cancer patients.
The activist Mohammed al-Shaer called for pressuring Egypt to open Rafah crossing and save the Gazan patients from the clutches of death.
According to Quds Press the last time the Egyptian authorities opened Rafah crossing in both directions was in March 2017. Later in May the crossing was exceptionally opened for 4 days only for those returning to the Gaza Strip.
Since the beginning of 2017 the crossing was opened in both directions for 10 days only and in one direction for 4 days.
Rafah crossing has been closed for 116 days now the longest closure the crossing has ever witnessed.
The Egyptian authorities started in March a large restoration and expansion operation in the Egyptian side of the crossing that is scheduled to end in a month at a cost of 5 million dollars.
Nearly 30000 Palestinians are registered in the travel records of the Gaza Ministry of Interior and waiting for the crossing to be opened most of whom are patients and students.
