Body
Palestinians in Gaza watched Sunday as workers laid groundwork to reopen the Rafah border crossing with Egypt, hoping it would offer a narrow channel for people to leave and return under the terms of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire. Israel said the crossing is scheduled to resume Monday, beginning with tightly limited numbers after a test opening. The announcement landed amid ongoing fighting and after an Israeli strike killed at least 30 Palestinians, including several children, according to hospital officials.
Ghalia Abu Mustafa, from Khan Younis, said opening the crossing was a “good step,” but criticized Israel for setting a cap on the number of people allowed to cross at first. Suhaila Al-Astal, displaced from Rafah, said her sick daughter needed help abroad and called for the crossing to be kept open permanently rather than constrained to a small initial flow.
Israel said the Rafah crossing had opened in a test and that residents could begin crossing Monday, while limiting the number of travelers at the start. Israel’s announcement also came after it accused Hamas of new truce violations. In the wider diplomatic effort tied to the ceasefire, Nicolay Mladenov, director-general of U.S. President Donald Trump’s new board focused on peace in Gaza, urged the parties to “exercise restraint” and said his office was working with a new Palestinian committee chosen to oversee Gaza.
In the first phase, Israel said few people would enter or leave each day and that no cargo would be allowed initially. AP reported that about 20,000 Palestinian children and adults who need medical care were hoping to leave Gaza through the crossing, along with thousands of people outside the territory hoping to return home.
Under the plan Israel described, Netanyahu said Israel would allow 50 patients for medical evacuation to leave daily. An official involved in the discussions, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss diplomatic talks, said each patient could travel with two relatives, and that 50 people who left Gaza during the war would be able to return each day. Zaher al-Wahidi, head of the Gaza Health Ministry’s documentation department, told AP the ministry had not been notified about the start of medical evacuations.
Israel said it and Egypt would vet people for exit and entry through the crossing and that European Union border patrol agents would supervise the process. Israel also said it and Egypt would increase the number of travelers over time if the system worked. Palestinian security officers passed through the Rafah crossing’s Egyptian gate and moved toward the Palestinian gate to join an EU mission that would supervise exit and entry, an Egyptian official said, speaking anonymously because he was not authorized to speak to media. The official also said ambulances crossed through the Egyptian gate.
Rafah has historically been Gaza’s main crossing, and the territory has four other border crossings with Israel. Israel seized the Rafah crossing in May 2024, saying it did so to combat Hamas arms smuggling. The crossing briefly opened for evacuation of medical patients during a ceasefire in early 2025, and Egypt has repeatedly said it must be open in both directions to prevent Palestinians from being pushed out of the enclave.
The ceasefire that enabled the current discussions paused more than two years of war that began with a Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, which killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 251 hostages. Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed 71,795 Palestinians, including 523 since this ceasefire started, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its figures and keeps detailed casualty records seen as generally reliable by U.N. agencies and independent experts.
Alongside the Rafah crossing announcement, Israel’s Diaspora Ministry said it was “moving to terminate” Doctors Without Borders’ operations in Gaza by Feb. 28. Israel had suspended the group’s operations in December after Doctors Without Borders refused to comply with new registration requirements that ask organizations to submit lists of local employees, which the charity said could put Palestinian staff at risk. Doctors Without Borders did not immediately comment to AP, but it has previously said the decision would have a catastrophic impact on its work in Gaza, where it funds and supports six hospitals, runs two field hospitals and eight primary health centers and medical points, and operates two stabilization centers that help children with severe malnutrition.
Israel said it suspended over two dozen humanitarian organizations from operating in Gaza after failures or refusals to comply with the new requirements, which the Diaspora Ministry said are aimed at preventing Hamas and other militant groups from infiltrating aid groups. Organizations targeted by the bans have called the rules arbitrary and warned they harm civilians who need aid.
Under the ceasefire terms, Israel’s military controls the area between the Rafah crossing and the zone where most Palestinians live. The first phase of the ceasefire called for the exchange of all hostages held in Gaza for hundreds of Palestinians held by Israel, a surge in humanitarian aid, and a partial pullback of Israeli troops. The second phase is more complicated, including steps to install a new Palestinian committee to govern Gaza, deploy an international security force, disarm Hamas, and begin rebuilding.
In the immediate run-up to Monday, with Rafah’s Egyptian gate accessed and EU supervision prepared, the initial numbers planned by Israel and the response from Gaza’s health sector will test whether the limited reopening can meet pressing medical needs during the ceasefire window.