PRC: Cairo promised Rafah terminal to open Thursday, EUBAM denies

The Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) on Wednesday declared that Cairo had promised that the Rafah terminal linking the Gaza Strip to the Egyptian Sinai peninsula would be open for traffic in both directions on Thursday 24/8/2006.


The PRC in a statement, a copy of which was faxed to the PIC, said that during negotiations between the Egyptians and the PRC to solve the issue of women, children and sick people trapped on both sides of the terminal Cairo promised that the terminal would be open on Thursday from 0700 am to 0700 pm local time.


It added that its armed wing the Salahuddin Brigades had ended all measures adopted over the past few days to practically solve the issue. Dozens of armed members of those Brigades were deployed near the Rafah crossing after their leadership said on Sunday it would adopt “suitable means” to re-open the terminal in the event it remained closed.


The PRC hoped that the crossing would really open so that the Palestinian people would not resort to other means to secure its opening.


For her part, the spokesperson of the European Union Border Assistance Mission (EUBAM) in Rafah, Maria Telleria, said that the crossing would not be open Thursday before travelers in both directions as previously announced.


Telleria told Ramattan news agency that what she described as the “difficult security conditions” in Gaza had prevented an opening of the crossing. She noted that her mission receives daily reports on the terminal’s condition.