Gaza’s Rafah crossing reopens after two-day pause
The Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt reopened on Sunday after a two-day closure, allowing a limited number of Palestinians to travel for medical treatment, Egyptian state media reported. The border point had reopened last week for the first time since mid-2024, a step tied to requirements for a U.S.-backed ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
Egyptian state media said Palestinians began traveling on Sunday after the closure that had been imposed Friday and Saturday because of confusion around how the crossing would operate. Israel did not immediately confirm the reported movement figures.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said 17 medical evacuees and 27 companions started crossing into Egypt, and that the same number was expected to go into Gaza. The Red Crescent and other parties involved in running the crossing have helped coordinate evacuations, with the border serving as a key route for patients seeking treatment outside Gaza.
Medical evacuees face slow processing, families say
Over the first four days the crossing was open, the flow was limited, with UN data cited by the Associated Press showing just 36 Palestinians requiring medical care allowed to leave for Egypt, plus 62 companions. Palestinian officials said that nearly 20,000 people in Gaza want to leave for medical treatment that is not available in the war-shattered territory.
Some families described how the limited authorizations played out on the ground inside Gaza. Palestinian patients gathered Sunday at a Red Crescent hospital in Khan Younis, according to family members who spoke to the Associated Press.
Amjad Abu Jedian, injured in the war, was scheduled to leave for treatment on the first day of the crossing’s reopening, but only five patients were allowed to travel that day, his mother, Raja Abu Jedian, said. She said Amjad was shot by an Israeli sniper while doing building work in the Bureij refugee camp in July 2024, and she said the family received a call from the World Health Organization about traveling on Sunday.
“We want them to take care of the patients (during their evacuation),” Raja Abu Jedian said. “We want the Israeli military not to burden them.”
Returns to Gaza come with alleged delays
Palestinians also began returning to Gaza on Sunday, with Egypt’s state-run Al-Qahera News satellite television reporting that a group arrived on the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing to return. Palestinians who returned in the first few days described hours of delays and invasive searches by Israeli authorities and by an Israeli-backed Palestinian armed group, Abu Shabab, the report said.
Israel has denied mistreatment.
A European Union mission and Palestinian officials run the border crossing, while Israel has its screening facility some distance away. The Rafah crossing has been described as a lifeline for Gaza: before the war it was the only crossing not controlled by Israel, though traffic through it was heavily restricted even before Israel seized the Palestinian side in May 2024.
Limited numbers allowed each day
Restrictions negotiated by Israeli, Egyptian, Palestinian and international officials, the report said, mean that only 50 people will be allowed to return to Gaza each day and 50 medical patients—with two companions for each—will be allowed to leave. Far fewer people, however, have crossed so far, according to the Associated Press reporting that drew on UN data for early figures.
Hamas outlines stance on weapons and reconstruction talks
As the border reopening unfolded, Hamas and mediators continued negotiating on the ceasefire framework. A senior Hamas official, Khaled Mashaal, said the group is open to discussing the future of its weapons as part of what he described as a “balanced approach” that includes reconstruction of Gaza and protecting the Palestinian enclave from Israel. He said those issues are central in the ceasefire’s second phase.
Mashaal said Hamas has offered multiple options, including a long-term truce, as part of ongoing negotiations with Egyptian, Qatari and Turkish mediators. He also said Hamas plans to agree to “guarantees,” including a 10-year period of disarmament and an international peacekeeping force on Gaza’s borders, to maintain peace and prevent clashes between militants and Israel, according to remarks he made at a forum in Qatar.
Israel has repeatedly demanded the complete disarmament and dismantling of Hamas, including both its military and civil infrastructure. Mashaal also accused Israel of financing and arming militias, including Abu Shabab, which operates in Israeli military-controlled areas in Gaza, saying the purpose is to create chaos.
Mashaal was asked about Hamas’s position on the new Board of Peace, a Trump-led group of world leaders expected to meet for the first time Feb. 19 to raise money for Gaza’s reconstruction. He did not provide a specific answer, but he said the group will not accept “foreign intervention” in Palestinian affairs.
“Gaza is for the people of Gaza. Palestinians are for the people of Palestine,” Mashaal said. “We will not accept foreign rule.”