On Monday, 10 October, Egyptian officials closed the Rafah border crossing in North Sinai with Gaza until further notice, citing continuing Israeli air strikes on the Palestinian side of the crossing. With the bridge now closed, the seaside enclave is completely cut off from the Palestinian territory.
The bridge was initially closed roughly three days after the Hamas movement, which administers Gaza, launched a continuing large-scale onslaught against Israel, killing hundreds and kidnapping dozens more, including army members.
“The crossing will be closed indefinitely, for the situation has become quite dangerous after the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip has had an impact on the Egyptian side of the crossing,” a security source at the highest level told The Daily Beast.
Unconfirmed reports said that Israel attacked the Egyptian part of the crossing earlier as Israeli news outlets reported that the Zionist state had previously warned it would attack any Egyptian trucks carrying fuel or other supplies to the Palestinians in Gaza.
No further details were immediately available at the time of publication.
Over the past hours, videos have gone viral depicting the bombing by Israel of the Rafah crossing in the southern part of Gaza.
Egypt and Israel have placed a harsh embargo on Gaza since 2007, when Hamas took power after conflicts with the rival Fatah movement that rules the occupied West Bank.
The Egyptian state did not alter its stance towards the Palestinian party until nearly a decade later, when Hamas severed its association with the Muslim Brotherhood, a constitutionally prohibited group in Egypt since 2014.
Egypt and Israel have been technically at peace since 1978, with strong diplomatic and economic ties.
The Egyptian people, however, have been at odds with successive Egyptian regimes over normalisation, as many regard Israel as a coloniser of Palestine since the 1948 conflict, an oppressor of the Palestinian people, and a former invader of the Sinai Peninsula.
