Heavy traffic at Gaza border ahead of Ramadan-ending holiday

Large numbers of Palestinians have begun to cross Egypt’s border into the blockaded Gaza Strip as the Islamic holiday marking the end of the Ramadan approaches, Egyptian security sources said Tuesday.

Palestinians turned up at Egypt’s Rafah border crossing in order to be back in Gaza to celebrate Eid al-Fitr, which concludes the month of fasting for Muslims. The holiday is traditionally celebrated in participants’ hometowns.

Egypt had announced earlier this week that it would close the crossing, located in the north of the Sinai peninsula, for three days to allow border officials to take time off for the holiday.

The September 10-12 shutdown will be the first time Egyptian authorities have closed the Rafah crossing since June.

Egypt had opened the crossing for what was said at the time to be an “unlimited” period following the deaths of nine Turkish activists aboard a Gaza-bound aid flotilla in late May.

The crossing has now been open for the longest period in the history of the Israeli-Egyptian blockade on Gaza. Security had been tightened after the Islamist Hamas movement took control of the enclave in 2007.

Palestinians with the appropriate paperwork have been allowed to cross back and forth, though many say they are still denied free movement.

The blockade on Gaza’s more than 1.4 million Palestinians has been condemned as a humanitarian disaster and a “flagrant violation of international law” by the rights group Amnesty International.

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