Rafah, November 07: Hamas said Friday it is allowing Muslims to leave the Gaza Strip on the annual pilgrimage to Makkah after blocking them last year because of a Palestinian political dispute.
“The first wave of around 1,000 Haj pilgrims from the Gaza Strip is now traveling to Egypt through the Rafah border crossing,” Hamas Religious Affairs Minister Taleb Abu Shaar told AFP.
“We are coordinating with our brothers in the (West Bank political capital of) Ramallah to allow 4,500 pilgrims from Gaza to make the pilgrimage this year,” he added.
This year, however, the West Bank Religious Affairs Ministry has reached an agreement with its Hamas-run counterpart to jointly issue the visas to residents of the impoverished coastal territory.
In another rare instance of cooperation, the West Bank government shipped 5,000 swine flu vaccinations to Gaza to be given to pilgrims, a Hamas Health Ministry official said.
“We will administer the vaccine at the Rafah crossing itself to make sure that everyone gets vaccinated,” Jihad Ahmed, the head of the ministry’s vaccination program, said.
This will be the first time the vaccine has been used in Gaza. – Agencies
, which has no recorded cases of A(H1N1).
Israel has sealed Gaza off from all but vital aid and strictly restricted travel since Hamas came into power.
The Rafah crossing with Egypt, Gaza’s only border terminal not controlled by Israel, is occasionally opened to allow humanitarian cases, students and Palestinians with Egyptian visas to leave the territory.
--Agencies
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