The Palestinian Authority has ordered its employees to pull out from the Gaza-Egypt border crossing, effectively closing the main exit point from the impoverished Gaza Strip.
The dispute over the border stems from a rift between the authority, based in the occupied West Bank and headed by Western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, and the Islamist militant group Hamas, which took control of Gaza more than a decade ago in a civil war.
Re-opening the Rafeh crossing, which according to human rights groups is the sole exit point from Gaza for an estimated 95 per cent of its two million population, will require Egypt to agree on a new operator.
It is unclear whether it will allow Hamas to run the passage. Cairo has not so far commented on the situation.
PA employees were deployed to Gaza’s border crossings with Israel and Egypt in 2017 under Egyptian mediation in what was seen as the first concrete step towards ending the dispute.
The PA said Sunday’s decision to pull out from the crossing was a response to Hamas undermining its operations and detaining some of its workers.
The decision takes effect on Monday, though the crossing was already scheduled to be closed until Tuesday due to a holiday.
Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum told Reuters the closure of the border amounted to “additional sanctions by Abbas against the people of Gaza”.
Read the article by Nidal al-Mughrabi, Reuters on The Advertiser.