Egyptian President opens Gaza border for month of Ramazan

A total of 114 Gazans have been killed in border protests and clashes since March 30, in the run-up to the controversial opening Monday of the US embassy in Jerusalem.
Egypt has relations with both Israel and Gaza rulers Hamas, giving Cairo an instrumental role in easing tensions between the two sides and alleviating the pressure on the territory's 2 million residents.
Hamas leader Ismail Haniya paid a brief visit on Sunday to Egypt, where he met with the director of the country's intelligence services Abbas Kamel.
For more than a decade Israel has imposed a crippling blockage on Gaza which it says is necessary to isolate Hamas, with which it has fought three wars since 2008.
But critics argue it amounts to collective punishment of the enclave's residents, with 47 per cent suffering from food insecurity according to United Nations figures.
An emergency summit of the world's main pan-Islamic body, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, will be held in Istanbul on Friday.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has vowed the extraordinary meeting should send a “strong message to the world” over Israel's treatment of the Palestinians.
At an Israeli checkpoint early Friday, Palestinians were crossing from the West Bank town of Bethlehem to the first weekly prayers of Ramazan at Jerusalem's Al Aqsa mosque compound.
Palestinians were seen being searched with metal detectors and having their bags checked by Israeli authorities, while at least two men in wheelchairs were pushed through the checkpoint by border agents.
Previous Post Next Post