Some 800 Palestinians crossed Sunday from the Gaza Strip into Egypt on their initial stage of a pilgrimage to Makkah, the first time since 2014 Egyptian authorities have granted visas for such a trip. The pilgrims left at around dawn and were to be met by buses on the Egyptian side to bring them to Cairo's airport, from where they would fly to Makkah in Saudi Arabia, said a Palestinian official at the Rafah crossing in the Gaza Strip.
Fifteen Gazans among the 800 were not authorised to cross, according to a Palestinian security official at Rafah, without providing the reasons. Security sources on the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing confirmed it was the first such permission for the Umrah pilgrimage since the start of Egyptian military operations in northern Sinai in 2014.
Around 2,500 pilgrims are authorised annually to leave Gaza via Egypt for the Hajj. Since the overthrow of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013, Egypt has faced a jihadist insurgency in North Sinai. Last year, Egypt's military launched a major offensive against the Sinai jihadists, though Cairo has for years considered the entire area a security priority.
Gaza, run by Islamist movement Hamas, has been under an Israeli blockade for more than a decade. Gaza militants and Israel have fought three wars since 2008.
The Rafah crossing with Egypt is the only one out of Gaza not controlled by Israel. It had been largely closed in recent years, but was reopened some 10 months ago. Around 300 travellers use it daily in either direction, according to figures dating to December provided by the Gisha NGO, which monitors the blockade on Gaza.
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