Palestinian diplomat: Egypt to reopen Gaza borders

A Palestinian diplomat said Sunday that Egypt had promised to reopen Rafah border crossing with the Gaza Strip "soon." Barakat Al-Farra, the Palestinian ambassador to Egypt, did not give a specific date for the reopening of the only passenger border crossing bypassing Israel. Egypt shut down the crossing on Wednesday after a deadly car bomb explosion at a security building on the Egyptian side of Rafah town in the restive Sinai Peninsula. The closure of Rafah virtually cuts Gaza, a home to 1.7 million Palestinians, from the outside world, as traveling through crossings with Israel is strictly limited to patients, foreigners and some businessmen. "There are Egyptian assurances that the crossing will reopen soon," Al-Farra told a local FM radio broadcasting from Gaza. He added that traveling will remain restricted to humanitarian cases, holders of foreign passports, and students "until the situation in Sinai improves." Hamas' authorities in Gaza say that more than 10,000 people have applied for traveling through the crossing, but Egypt only allows a maximum of 300 people to exit every day after the crossing is opened. Since former Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi was toppled on July 3, the Rafah crossing has been operating at less than half of its capacity. The restrictions at Rafah are, in part, due to the increasing insurgency in Sinai by extremist groups and Hamas' close ties with the ousted Egyptian president. On Saturday, Hamas said that two Egyptian gunboats attacked some Palestinian fishing boats near the maritime border between Gaza and Egypt. A fisherman was arrested and released an hour later, Hamas said in a statement, slamming the incident. Hamas has taken over Gaza by force in 2007 after routing troops loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, whose rule has been confined to the West Bank since then.