Baku-APA. The Egyptian authorities on Saturday suddenly closed the Rafah terminal on the border with the Hamas- ruled Gaza Strip for security reasons, a senior official of the Islamic movement said, APA reports quoting Xinhua.
Maher Abu Sabha, chief of the Hamas-run crossings authorities in Gaza, told Xinhua that Egypt informed the Palestinian side that the crossing was closed just two hours after it had been opened.
"The Egyptian side told us that the sudden closure of the crossing was due to the tense security situation in the peninsula of Sinai and the Egyptian side of Rafah city," said Abu Sabha.
Since June 30, when Islamic President Mohamed Morsi was ousted, Egypt has been only partially opening the crossing due to the deteriorating security situation in the country.
Abu Sabha slammed the slow movement and the reduction of the working hours from 10 to four at the crossing. He called on Egypt to permanently open the crossing for humanitarian reasons.
Hamas officials in Gaza said that the number of passengers who travel through Rafah border crossing daily had dropped from 1,200 people to only 300 people in both directions.
Earlier on Saturday, the UN had expressed concerns over the restrictions imposed on Rafah border crossing, and called on both Egypt and Israel to permanently open all Gaza Strip crossing points.
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