Three-hundred Palestinians were allowed to travel outside of Gaza on Tuesday through the Rafah land crossing after Egyptian authorities briefly re-opened it for humanitarian cases, an official said.

Sharif Abdullah, Egyptian director of the Rafah crossing, told Ma’an that 85 Palestinians returned from Egypt while around 300 Palestinians traveled to the Egyptian side.

Egyptian authorities also allowed 60 trucks carrying Qatari construction materials to enter.

There have been frequent closures of the Rafah terminal in recent weeks due to political unrest in Egypt and violence in the Sinai peninsula.

After the July coup, which deposed president Mohamed Morsi, Egypt’s army has repeatedly closed the Rafah border crossing and destroyed hundreds of tunnels that Gazans used for years to import fuel, building materials and other goods.

The Rafah crossing has been the principal connection between Gaza’s 1.8 million residents and the outside world since the imposition of an economic blockade by the State of Israel beginning in 2007.

The blockade has severely limited the imports and exports of the Gaza Strip and has led to frequent humanitarian crises and hardship for Gazans.

(Ma’an – www.maannews.net)