AFP - Egypt Saturday reopened its Rafah border crossed with Gaza, allowing people to travel freely for the first time in four years, in a move hailed by Hamas, but criticized by Israel.
Among the first to cross reopened border post were two ambulances conveying patients from the Gaza Strip until then blocked for Egypt treatment so that a minibus carrying a dozen visitors, an AFP journalist has reported.
The crossing is open to persons during eight hours per day from 9: 00 pm, except holidays and on Fridays, giving Gazans a gateway to the world as Rafah is the only passage that does not pass by Israel.
Under change overdue, which excludes the flow of goods, persons aged under 18 years of age or more than 40 will require only a visa pass, but those between 18 and 40 will still need security clearance, officials said.
Commercial traffic will continue to have to pass through the points of the border with Israel to enter the Palestinian enclave depleted.
In April, Minister of Foreign Affairs Nabil al-Arabi, Egypt announced that the crossing should reopen permanently, stressing this would help facilitate the blockade imposed by Israel.
The border has remained largely closed since June 2006 when Israel has imposed a blockade tight on Gaza after that activists seized Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who is still being detained.
The blockade was tightened a year later, when Hamas took control of the territory, the eviction of the forces loyal to the Palestinian Authority supported by Westerners.
The Organization of the United Nations has called the embargo illegal and requested several times it be lifted.
The decision to reopen the Rafah crossing permanently came more from three months after the resignation of former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak under pressure after 18 days of massive demonstrations against his regime.
It was hailed by of Gaza Islamist leaders, Hamas and the European Union, but Israel has allowed the new with apprehension.
The spokesman for the Hamas Fawzi Barhum said Thursday the move was "a courageous and responsible decision which falls to Palestinian and Egyptian public opinion".
"We hope that this is a step toward the complete lifting of the siege of Gaza," he said, a day after the announcement of the Egypt, that it would open the crossing on a base permanently to facilitate the blockade in place since 2006.
The European Union has also praised the move and said that it is in consultation with the Egypt, the Palestinians and Israel on the removal of his team of advisors to monitor activity along the border.
But Israel is concerned with Home Front Defence Minister Matan Vilnai told public radio that it would create "a very problematic situation".
The move was welcomed by Gisha Israeli NGO, which fights for freedom of movement of Palestinians.
"Gisha welcomed the announcement that the Egypt will increase the capacity of the inhabitants of Gaza to travel abroad through Rafah, which has become the gateway of Gaza in the world," said the group.
The move follows a unity agreement April 27 between rival Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah party of Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas was signed in the Egyptian capital.
"This new spring of Cairo is bearing fruit, as the opening of Rafah and the efforts to put an end to the blockade," said Nabil Shaath, a senior official of Fatah during a visit to the Gaza Strip.
The figures provided by the NGOs show that last year, an average of 19 000 people a month used the passage - only 47% of the number that has been used in the first half of 2006.
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