Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said that the Rafah checkpoint on the border between Egypt and the Gaza Strip is open on the Egyptian side, but roads on the Gaza side have been damaged by bombing.
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Earlier, the Financial Times, citing diplomats, reported that not a single foreign citizen had yet been allowed to leave Gaza through the Rafah checkpoint on the border with Egypt.
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“The Rafah checkpoint is officially open on the Egyptian side, it has been open all this time,” the foreign minister said in an interview with CNN.
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The head of the foreign policy department added that air bombings disabled roads from the Gaza Strip.
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Shoukry stressed that if foreign citizens who are in Gaza manage to pass through the checkpoint, then the Egyptian authorities will help them with the flight so that they return to their home countries.
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The Foreign Minister, whose words are quoted by the TV channel, added that Egypt “tried” to work with the UN on the issue of supplying humanitarian aid to Gaza, but did not receive the appropriate permission.
Earlier, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said that the country seeks to open the Rafah checkpoint to send humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip.
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Egyptian sources said Tuesday that two Egyptian workers were injured by shrapnel due to Israeli shelling on the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing on the Egypt-Israel border. The Israel Defense Forces admitted that its planes struck a checkpoint on Tuesday. Earlier, sources reported that Rafah was closed again due to Israeli strikes on the Palestinian part of the border crossing.
