Egyptians close down Gaza crossing for holiday

Egypt shuttered its only crossing with the Gaza Strip on Thursday, putting in place beefed-up security precautions for the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr, Cairo’s state-run media said.

Authorities said they would reopen the Rafah crossing on Monday, after the holiday, which marks the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, Egypt’s Middle East News Agency reported.

Egyptian officials have closed Rafah several times over the last month as tensions between the Egyptian military and the Strip’s Hamas rulers, backed by the ousted Muslim Brotherhood, have come to a boil.

Cairo recently elected to sharply decrease the number of operating hours at the terminal, from nine to four, leading to a drop in the number of people crossing over from about 1,200 to 150 a day, according to MENA, citing Egyptian officials.

Violence in the Sinai Peninsula spiked after the ouster of president Mohammed Morsi on July 3, with Egypt launching a wide anti-terror offensive against militants in the peninsula, many of whom, authorities in Cairo say, come from Gaza.

Egyptian forces have also worked to shut down the large network of smuggling tunnels between the Strip and Sinai, leading to severe shortages inside the Palestinian enclave, according to Gazans and UN officials.

On Wednesday, an Egyptian military spokesman said that in the past month his army had killed 60 jihadi militants and captured 103 more in an effort to eradicate terror activity in the territory.

On Thursday, Israel briefly shut down the main airport in the Red Sea resort city of Eilat, which sits close to the Egyptian border. Officials cited unspecified “security concerns” for the closure.

Eilat has been targeted by rockets several times over the past few years. The airport in the city was closed briefly in the immediate aftermath of one such recent strike.

Asher Zeiger contributed to this report.