Palestinian children, wearing face masks, wait to enter Egypt through the Rafah border crossing in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah, Sept. 27, 2020. The Egyptian authorities on Sunday allowed a three-day opening of the Rafah Border Crossing with the Gaza Strip for the travel in both directions, Palestinian officials said. (Photo by Khaled Omar/Xinhua)
GAZA, Sept. 27 (Xinhua) -- The Egyptian authorities on Sunday allowed a three-day opening of the Rafah Border Crossing with the Gaza Strip for the travel in both directions, Palestinian officials said.
In a press statement sent to Xinhua, the Hamas-run Ministry of Interior said the passenger buses have begun passing the border after the gate opened.
"On the first day of the opening, the ministry has allowed patients, students, Egyptian and foreign passport holders, as well as those who have residency documents to travel through," the ministry added.
Over the past days, ministries of interior and health conducted COVID-19 tests for the travellers to ensure that they were not infected with the virus, the statement noted.
Meanwhile, hundreds of Palestinians stranded in Egypt are ready to return to the coastal enclave through the crossing and will be subjected to a week-long quarantine.
On Aug. 11, the Egyptian authorities opened the border crossing for the first time after the coronavirus broke out in Gaza in March to allow hundreds of stranded Palestinian travellers to pass.
