Agreement could lead to increased Rafah crossing access: Former Egyptian official
Speaking to Al Jazeera from Cairo, Hussein Haridy, Egypt’s former assistant foreign minister, said the agreement should lead to some access through the Rafah crossing between southern Gaza and Egypt.
“Fortunately, the agreement announced today in Doha stipulates that the Israelis would start withdrawing gradually from the
Philadelphi Corridor, and the Palestinians would be managing the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing,” Haridy said.
“That would enable us to open the Rafah crossing, to surge aid and humanitarian assistance to Gaza.”
Haridy also said he understands the agreement would mean injured Palestinians could pass through the crossing to get medical assistance.
“Ultimately, when the Israeli forces would withdraw completely from the Gaza Strip, and there is a Palestinian authority running Gaza, I think that the Rafah crossing would be operated normally, as it had been before June 2007,” he said.
Haridy added that Egypt, which was one of the mediators for ceasefire negotiations between Hamas and Israel, “has really exerted all its efforts to bring the Israeli aggression to an end as quickly as possible”.
A line of trucks waiting on an Egyptian road along the border with Israel, near the Rafah border crossing with the Gaza Strip, on May 2, 2024 [Oren Alon/Reuters]