GAZA, (Palestine Foundation Information Center), A bus carrying 12 passengers returning via the Rafah border crossing arrived in the Gaza Strip late Monday night.
Local sources reported that the bus, which transported a limited number of travelers, reached Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, south of the Strip, with only 12 returnees on board.
According to the Egyptian media, only five medical evacuees were allowed to leave Gaza on Monday, and just 12 Palestinians were allowed to return to the war-torn territory last night due to delays imposed by the Israeli occupation army after the Rafah crossing with Egypt was finally reopened.
The long-awaited reopening of Gaza’s southern border crossing with Egypt on Monday was expected to ease more than 18 months of a crippling military blockade on the war-ravaged territory.
However, the Israeli army maintained strict security restrictions and imposed a cumbersome bureaucratic process that permitted only a handful of people to travel in either direction, leaving or entering Gaza, while continuing to block goods from moving through the crossing.
The total number of passengers who passed through the crossing on Monday was far below the 50 people Israeli officials had promised would be permitted to move in each direction.
While only five Palestinian patients were allowed to leave the Strip through the crossing, over 20,000 children and adults in dire need of medical care are waiting to depart through the crossing for medical treatment in Egypt and elsewhere, according to Gaza health officials.
