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Official: Egypt opens Gaza crossing
Egyptian authorities let some 500 students, 500 third-country residents and medical patients stranded in Strip cross through Rafah crossing; 800 medical cases to be allowed to cross Monday, spokesman for officials at border says
Associated Press
Egyptian authorities started letting Gaza students, third-country residents and medical patients stranded in the territory cross the usually closed frontier into Egypt
on Sunday, a spokesman for Palestinian officials at the Gaza-Egypt border crossing said.
Spokesman Adel Zourab said Egypt had agreed to allow 500 students studying abroad and 500 other people with valid residency permits for Egypt or other countries to pass through the border crossing Sunday. He said 800 medical cases were scheduled to cross on Monday.
Egypt sealed the border after Islamic Hamas
militants seized control of Gaza in June 2007. It has occasionally opened the passage for limited periods. Israel has also blockaded its border crossings with Gaza, allowing in only a limited amount of humanitarian aid.
Zourab, who represents the Hamas administration, said about 200 of the sick people might not be able to travel due to a delay issuing them Palestinian passports by Hamas' rival, the West Bank-based government of President Mahmoud Abbas.
The moderate Abbas government is backed by the West and recognized internationally, while Hamas is listed as a terrorist organization by the U.S., European Union and Israel and officially shunned.
Representatives of Hamas and Abbas' Fatah movement are expected to hold reconciliation talks in Egypt on Wednesday.
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