USEUROPEAFRICAASIA 中文双语Français
Home / World

Egypt reopens border

China Daily | Updated: 2013-05-23 07:50

Egyptian authorities reopened the Rafah border crossing with the Gaza Strip on Wednesday after seven kidnapped Egyptian soldiers were released. "The crossing opened its gates in two directions at 9 am local time," said Maher Abu Sabha, a Hamas official, adding there had been about 4,000 Palestinian travelers waiting on the Egyptian side of the crossing. Egyptian policemen kept the crossing shut for five days in protest of the abduction of their colleagues in the Sinai Peninsula. The security members were released at dawn.

Ismail Haneya, Hamas' prime minister, congratulated Cairo on retrieving its security personnel.

After the kidnapping, Hamas beefed up security along Gaza's border with Egypt, tightening monitoring on smuggling tunnels beneath the frontier for fears that the kidnappers may move their hostages into Gaza.

Xinhua

(China Daily 05/23/2013 page11)

Today's Top News

Editor's picks

Most Viewed

Copyright 1995 - . All rights reserved. The content (including but not limited to text, photo, multimedia information, etc) published in this site belongs to China Daily Information Co (CDIC). Without written authorization from CDIC, such content shall not be republished or used in any form. Note: Browsers with 1024*768 or higher resolution are suggested for this site.
License for publishing multimedia online 0108263

Registration Number: 130349
FOLLOW US