Members of Palestinian security forces keep watch as a taxi carrying passengers arrives at the gate of Rafah border crossing with Egypt, in the southern Gaza Strip February 23, 2021. REUTERS/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa

Egypt today opened the Rafah border crossing with the Gaza Strip until further notice, Egyptian and Palestinian sources said, a move described as an incentive for reconciliation between the main Palestinian factions meeting in Cairo, Reuters reported.

Egypt today reopened the Rafah crossing between the besieged Gaza Strip and the North African nation in both directions for four days.

Egypt will reopen the Rafah crossing with the blockaded Gaza Strip on Monday, the Palestinian Interior Ministry said on Sunday.

Gaza’s interior ministry said on Monday it was in contact with the Egyptian government to discuss opening the Rafah crossing “permanently”.

Egypt has announced new air travel restrictions and health regulations amid the continuing spread of coronavirus. Under the new regulations introduced by Egypt’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), all incoming passengers, including Egyptian citizens, are required to produce a PCR analysis to confirm that they are coronavirus-free, Al Arabiya reports.

Beginning today, Palestinians stranded on either side of the Egypt-Gaza border will be able to cross for three days in what is their first opportunity in months.

Egypt has started construction of a steel wall running along its 14km (7 mile) border with Gaza, according to eyewitnesses.

Egypt has opened the Rafah border crossing with the Gaza Strip allowing hundreds Palestinians stranded as a result of the coronavirus outbreak to return to the besieged enclave, Anadolu Agency reported.

Egypt on Tuesday required citizens evacuated from abroad to be quarantined at a Cairo airport hotel at their own expense, The New Arab‘s Arabic-language website reported, eliciting anger and opposition from Egyptian travellers upon their return home.