Following-through on his pledge to provide relief in return for calm from the Gaza Strip, Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman has decided to reopen the Erez border-crossing, which is used for the passage of people between Israel and the Palestinian enclave. The Defense Minister’s Bureau issued a statement noting that “the decision had been made in response to the presiding quiet this past week and the considerable drop in the number of violent incidents.”
Meanwhile, reports quoting an Egyptian official revealed that Cairo has been reviewing the possibility of opening its Rafah border-crossing with the Gaza Strip under mitigating conditions, as was the case during Egypt’s former President Hosni Mubarak, the leader of the umbrella organization of the Islamist Hamas in Egypt – the Muslim Brotherhood. According to the official, President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi instructed to provide the Palestinians with preferable conditions and not to close the crossing for long periods of time. Furthermore, passage through the crossing will be possible without any advanced coordination.