Egypt has reopened the Rafah border crossing with Gaza, closed since the August 5 attack that killed 16 Egyptian soldiers, Reuters reported on Saturday, citing high-level Egyptian sources.
“The Egyptian side has informed us that the Rafah crossing would open all days of the week, without more details,” the news agency quoted Ehab Al-Ghsain, spokesman for the interior ministry in Gaza, as saying.
The news was reportedly confirmed by an Egyptian security source, suggesting increasingly warm relations between recently elected Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi, of the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood, and Gaza’s Islamist Hamas government.
The Rafah crossing was closed in the aftermath of a deadly terrorist attack that killed 16 Egyptian soldiers. Smuggling tunnels were also shut down due to Egyptian suspicions that the terrorists were assisted by extremists in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.
On Friday, newly installed Egyptian Defense Minister Abdel Fattah el-Sissi told his Israeli counterpart that Cairo was committed to keeping to its peace treaty with Israel, even as Egyptian troops flowed into the Sinai in an anti-terror operation.
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