GAZA STRIP: For the second consecutive day, the Rafah crossing point between the Gaza Strip and Egypt remained open for Gazan Haj pilgrims departing for Saudi Arabia, officials said on Saturday.

The first of four groups of 300 Gazans already left Gaza via the Rafah crossing on Friday. Officials said the crossing would be open for the next three days.

Gazan pilgrims were last year unable to travel for Haj because of the Palestinian political dispute. The Hamas government had tried to directly arrange the allocated Palestinian Haj quota with the Kingdom, which had already made arrangements with the Palestinian Authority.

However, this year Hamas coordinated with the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and reached an agreement on the issue. “We are coordinating with our brothers in the West Bank to allow 4,500 pilgrims from Gaza to make the pilgrimage this year,” said Taleb Abu Shaar, Hamas’ minister of religious affairs.

In another rare instance of cooperation between Gaza and the West Bank, the Abbas administration shipped 5,000 swine flu vaccinations to Gaza to be administered to pilgrims, a Hamas health ministry official said.

The Rafah crossing point with Egypt, considered the only border point not controlled by Israel, is occasionally opened to allow humanitarian cases, students and Palestinians with Egyptian visas to leave the Gaza Strip.

After Hamas seized control of the territory in June 2007, Israel closed all crossing points including Rafah terminal.

The pilgrims would be flown to Makkah from the Egyptian airport of Sinai.