CAIRO (Reuters) – Israeli bombardments hit the area of the Rafah border crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt on Tuesday, Palestinian officials and Egyptian security sources said, imperilling operations at the only formal exit point on Gaza’s southern border.
Gaza’s Hamas-run Interior Ministry said the bombardments had caused work to stop at the crossing, and that Egyptian staff had warned Palestinian counterparts to evacuate.
The strike follows a similar incident on Monday that partially disrupted operations at the border, though Egyptian security sources said access for registered travellers and humanitarian activity had been restored by Tuesday morning.
Rafah is the sole possible crossing point into Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula for Gaza’s 2.3 million residents. Access is strictly controlled under a blockade by Egypt and Israel on the movement of goods and people from Gaza.
Earlier on Tuesday, the Israeli military revised a recommendation by one of its spokespeople that Palestinians fleeing its air strikes in the Gaza Strip head to Egypt.
Israel has been pounding Gaza with the fiercest air strikes in the 75-year history of its conflict with the Palestinians since Hamas launched a deadly incursion into Israel on Saturday.
(Reporting by Ahmed Mohamed Hassan, Yusri Mohamed and Nidal al-Mughrabi; Writing by Aidan Lewis; Editing by Alison Williams and Gareth Jones)
