(MENAFN- The Peninsula) Egypt opened the Rafah border crossing yesterday for the first time in a month to allow thousands of stranded Palestinians to return to the Gaza Strip, border officials said.
However, the frontier remained closed in the other direction, making it impossible for the vast majority of Gazans to leave the densely populated Mediterranean enclave.
The Rafah crossing was shut on October 25 after Islamist militants in Egypt's adjacent Sinai region killed 33 members of the security forces in some of the worst anti-state violence since Islamist president Mohammed Mursi was toppled in July 2013.
The month-long closure marooned around 6,000 Palestinians in Egypt and third countries, while around a thousand people in Gaza are desperate to get out for medical treatment in Egypt, officials in Islamist-ruled Gaza say.
Egyptian state television said outbound traffic would be allowed from 12pm to 4pm (1000-1400 GMT) yesterday and from 7am to 4pm (0500-1400 GMT) today.
Impatient to return home, hundreds of Palestinians swiftly started to cross as soon as the border offices opened.
"The situation was very difficult. People ran out of money, others were sick, it was tough for everyone. Some went to mosques to sleep because they had no money," said Fadwa Almoghrabi, who was stuck in Cairo for 20 days on her way back from visiting relatives in the Gulf.
Travellers said a combined 11 hours of openings would not be enough to allow the thousands of stranded Gazans to return.
Rafah is the only major border crossing into the impoverished Gaza Strip that does not go through Israel, which also blockades the territory.
Gaza is controlled by the militant Islamist group Hamas, which has long had ties to the Muslim Brotherhood that was ousted from power in Egypt when Mursi was overthrown. Hamas's relations with the current Egyptian government are tense.
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