?Palestinians wait for travel permits to cross into Egypt through the Rafah border crossing, in the southern Gaza Strip on Feb. 21, 2018. Egypt decided to open the Rafah border crossing with the Gaza Strip for four days starting from Wednesday, the Palestinian embassy in Cairo said in a statement on Feb. 20, 2018. (Xinhua/Wissam Nassar)
CAIRO, Feb. 20 (Xinhua) -- Egypt decided to open the Rafah border crossing with the Gaza Strip for four days starting from Wednesday, the Palestinian embassy in Cairo said in a statement Tuesday.
"The Egyptian authorities decided to open Rafah border crossing for four days, starting from Wednesday and ending on Saturday, for the travel and return of Palestinian citizens in both directions," the statement said.
It is the second time for Egypt to open the border crossing in 2018, after it kept it open for three days from Feb. 7, during which Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh crossed the border to travel to Cairo for talks with Egyptian officials.
Egypt opens the crossing for a few days every month or two for stranded travellers, including Palestinian patients seeking overseas treatment, students studying abroad, people with work permits or residencies in other countries, people with relatives outside Gaza and Palestinians with foreign passports.
The Gaza Strip has three major border crossings linking it to the outside world. Israel controls two of them - one for the movement of people and another for commercial activities - while Egypt controls the Rafah crossing.
The seaside enclave has been besieged by Israel since 2007, after Islamic Hamas movement, which overwhelmingly won the parliamentary elections a year earlier, routed forces loyal to the Palestinian Authority and seized control of the territory by force.
