BICOM

Hamas officials yesterday closed the Rafah border crossing with Egypt, due to a lack of coordination with Egyptian officials. On Saturday, without communicating to their Palestinian counterparts, Egyptian officials closed the border. Egyptian officials said they closed the crossing for routine maintenance work and reopened it later in the day for pedestrians. Meanwhile, Palestinian officials said that three buses with 180 passengers waited for several hours to cross the border, with some of the passengers responding by attempting to forcefully open the border gate.

Egypt reopened its side of the Rafah border crossing on 28 May, in an attempt to ease the restrictions and conditions of Palestinians living in Gaza. Palestinians in Gaza were optimistic that conditions would improve in the post-Mubarak era, with the expectation that more support would be offered to them. Initially the opening of the border symbolised a positive sign for improved conditions. However, tensions between Egypt and Hamas have increased since the border opening, with Hamas accusing Egypt of limiting the number of people allowed through the border.