Egypt has lifted five years of full-scale blockade of the Gaza Strip. Officials in Cairo have announced that they opened the border with Gaza unilaterally and completely to all Palestinians, including those stuck in the Mediterranean strip.

Egypt is also allowing Palestinians free entry into the country through the airport, although there is no airport operating in the Gaza Strip. On Monday, seven Palestinians waiting at Cairo International Airport were allowed into Egypt without the usual security clearances and visas.

The decision to allow free access means Palestinians can freely leave Gaza. It also applies to Palestinians in the West Bank and Arab East Jerusalem.

The decision should not be surprising, given that the Gaza Strip is ruled by Hamas, a branch of new Egyptian President Mohammed Mursi’s Muslim Brotherhood. The blockade was imposed after Hamas took control of Gaza by force in 2007. It banned most Palestinians from leaving.

The Egyptian move comes a few days after Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said that he was “confident” Mursi would fully open the Gaza border to trade. This opening is even more than anyone had hoped.

Israeli officials have yet to respond to the news, but will presumably be extremely hostile to the change, as it will undermine their long-standing strategy of keeping Gazans in a state of constant siege.

Hamas finds itself in a stronger position with the Brotherhood having emerged as the dominant political group in post-rebellion Egypt.

The Brotherhood presidency might not have much executive power and seems to be engaged in a silent power struggle with the military, but the very fact that one of its leaders won it through elections speaks for the popularity of the group among Egyptians and the potential power it could gain in the future.

For long, Hamas has complained that Mursi’s predecessor Hosni Mubarak, ousted from power in February 2011 in a popular revolt, sided not just with Israel, but also with its political rival – the Fatah movement.

What we could expect now is American pressure on the Egyptian military to close the border with the Gaza Strip. The ruling generals in Cairo have not commented on the opening of the border. However, any move on their part to close it again will be highly unpopular among the people of Egypt.

The opening of the Gaza-Egypt border should be welcome news for the residents of the Palestinian enclave who have been suffering from the choking Israeli blockade.

However, it is not an alternative to an end to the Israeli siege of the Gaza Strip. Pressure on the Jewish state to lift the blockade should be intensified.