Loading ...Egypt should open border crossing into Gaza, British Government says
The British Government has asked the Egyptian government to re-open its border with the Gaza strip, ministers have said.
The Rafah border crossing, the only way out of Gaza that does not pass through Israeli territory, has been closed since the start of the year to most traffic.
The Israeli military has enforced a blockade of Gaza from the Israeli side since 2007, shortly after the election of Hamas to the territory’s administration.
The blockade, which the United Nations says infringes basic human rights, has resulted in a desperate humanitarian situation in the territory.
70 to 80 per cent of Gazans live below the poverty line while thousands of people forced out of their homes during Israeli bombing campaigns have been unable to return due to a lack of construction supplies.
Conservative peer Baroness Anelay, a minister at the Foreign Office, said in response to a parliamentary question that allowing traffic across the border could lessen some of the the humanitarian impact of the Israeli blockade of the area.
Philip Hammond, who raised the issue with Egypt’s government “We are concerned about the closure of the Rafah Pedestrian Crossing and the impact that has, particularly on urgent medical and other priority cases in Gaza,” the minister said.
“We have encouraged the Egyptian authorities to ease the movement of bona fide travellers through Rafah, and in the longer term to consider expanding Rafah to passenger transit and humanitarian goods transit, which will help to ease humanitarian pressures.
“[Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond] raised the importance of reopening the Rafah crossing when he spoke with the Egyptian Foreign Minister on 14 January. We continue to raise this issue in our contacts with the Egyptian government.”
Source: www.independent.co.uk