Egyptian President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi announced late on Thursday that the Rafah border crossing with the Gaza Strip will be opening throughout the holy Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. Sisi wrote on his official Twitter account that the opening would "alleviate the burdens of the brothers in the Gaza Strip." The last extended opening lasted three weeks in 2013, while usually Palestinians are able to cross for a few dozen days a year. Previous openings of Rafah have been cut short by violence in the Sinai peninsula or with authorities giving other reasons. On Thursday, 541 people crossed from Egypt into Gaza along with dozens of trucks carrying cement, steel, power engines and medical and food aid from the Red Crescent, the officials said. Sisi’s announcement comes just days after Israeli forces shot and killed 60 Palestinians and injured more than 2,700 during mass protests along the Gaza border. The high number of wounded has overwhelmed the Gaza health system. A total of 114 Gazans have been killed in border protests and clashes since March 30, in the run-up to the controversial opening Monday of the US embassy in Jerusalem. The crossing has been open since Saturday so Sisi’s announcement is technically an extension of the opening and Egyptian authorities said 510 people crossed on Wednesday, the majority coming from Gaza into Egypt. The Rafah crossing is Gazas main gate to the outside world but has only had sporadic openings since the 2013 ouster of Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi, of the Muslim Brotherhood. For more than a decade Israel has imposed a crippling blockade on Gaza which it says is necessary to isolate the Palestinian Hamas movement that controls the coastal strip. But critics argue it amounts to collective punishment of the enclaves residents, with 47 percent suffering from food insecurity according to United Nations figures.