Israel says Rafah crossing to open soon to let Gazans leave via Egypt

Israel announced that it will open the main Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt in the coming days to allow Palestinians to leave the Strip.

The Israeli military authority “Cogat” said that the exit “will be facilitated through coordination with Egypt, after security approval from Israel and under the supervision of the European Union mission.” She added that this would be “similar to the mechanism that was implemented in January,” when the crossing was opened during a previous ceasefire.

An Israeli security official said that this was an expression of Israel’s support for the current ceasefire with Hamas, which began seven weeks ago.

But Egypt denied that it was coordinating with Israel to reopen the Rafah crossing.

The State Information Service quoted an official Egyptian source as saying, “If it is agreed to open the crossing, it will be in both directions for entry and exit from the Gaza Strip, according to the plan of US President Donald Trump.”

Trump’s 20-point Gaza peace plan The decision states that “opening the Rafah crossing in both directions will be subject to the same mechanism” applied under the ceasefire agreement in January.

The crossing has been mostly closed since May 2024, when Israeli forces took over the Palestinian side. Before that, it was the main exit point for Palestinians allowed to leave during the conflict and a main entry point for humanitarian aid.

According to the World Health Organization, at least 16,500 seriously ill or injured Palestinians requiring life-saving medical treatment abroad are currently awaiting evacuation from Gaza. It says that only 235 patients, almost all of them children, have been evacuated through the crossings with Israel since the ceasefire came into effect.

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that Palestinian Authority forces will help operate the reopened Rafah crossing alongside the European Union border assistance mission.

It quoted a European source as saying that Palestinian representatives also helped during the previous ceasefire, but without wearing the Palestinian Authority badge due to “Israeli sensitivity” regarding their presence in Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ruled out any role for the Palestinian Authority, which rules parts of the occupied West Bank, in the future governance of the territories.

Haaretz also reported that Netanyahu has so far prevented the reopening of the Rafah crossing due to the delayed return of the bodies of deceased hostages held by Hamas and other armed groups in Gaza.

Under the first phase of the ceasefire agreement, which took effect on October 10, Hamas agreed to return the 20 living Israeli hostages and the bodies of the 28 Israeli and foreign hostages still in Gaza within 72 hours.

All living hostages were released on October 13 in exchange for 250 Palestinian prisoners and 1,718 detainees from Gaza.

So far, the remains of 23 dead Israeli hostages have been handed over, in addition to the remains of three foreign hostages – one of them Thai, Nepalese, and Tanzanian. In return, Israel handed over the bodies of 345 Palestinians killed during the war.

One of the two remaining hostages is Israeli – Ran Jefeli, 24 – and the other is Thai – Suthisak Rintalak, 43.

The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office said on Wednesday morning that forensic examinations showed that human remains handed over by Hamas in Gaza the previous day did not belong to either man.

On Wednesday afternoon, the military wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement, an ally of Hamas, announced that it had found the body of a hostage in northern Gaza. The body will later be handed over to Israeli forces via the Red Cross, according to the military wing of Hamas.

The two dead hostages who remain in Gaza were among 251 people kidnapped by Hamas and its allies on October 7, 2023, when about 1,200 others were killed.

Israel responded to the attack by launching a military campaign in Gaza, during which more than 70,100 people were killed, according to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in the Strip.