Egyptian authorities reopened the Rafah border crossing with the Gaza Strip on Wednesday after seven kidnapped Egyptian soldiers were released. "The crossing opened its gates in two directions at 9 am local time," said Maher Abu Sabha, a Hamas official, adding there had been about 4,000 Palestinian travelers waiting on the Egyptian side of the crossing. Egyptian policemen kept the crossing shut for five days in protest of the abduction of their colleagues in the Sinai Peninsula. The security members were released at dawn.

Ismail Haneya, Hamas' prime minister, congratulated Cairo on retrieving its security personnel.

After the kidnapping, Hamas beefed up security along Gaza's border with Egypt, tightening monitoring on smuggling tunnels beneath the frontier for fears that the kidnappers may move their hostages into Gaza.

Xinhua

(China Daily 05/23/2013 page11)