Members of Islamic Hamas movement parliament on Monday called on the Egyptian authorities to keep Rafah crossing on the borders with Egypt permanently open.

Ahmed Bahar, deputy speaker of the inoperative Hamas-dominated parliament in the Gaza Strip, in which the movement has been ruling since 2007, made the appeal during a news conference held in Gaza.

"The Egyptian authorities' policy to partially open the crossing and sometimes completely close it down is a collective punishment that is banned by the human international law," said Bahar.

Bahar, also a senior Hamas leader in Gaza, said "Egypt should permanently and completely open the crossing of Rafah because closing it would tighten the ongoing Israeli siege imposed on the Gaza Strip."

Israel imposed a tight blockade on the Gaza Strip in June 2007 right after Hamas violently seized control of the Palestinian coastal enclave. The crossing point of Rafah has been also partially opened.

The Gaza Strip populations are using Rafah crossing as their only gateway to the outside world. Students and patients as well as businessmen and tourists are crossing through the sole crossing.

The number of Palestinians travelling through the crossing dropped has dramatically dropped since the June 30 demonstrations in Egypt that ousted Islamist-oriented President Mohamed Morsi, the number of Palestinians from 1,200 to 300 people.