1 Feb (Reuters) – Gaza’s main border crossing at Rafah will reopen to Palestinians on Monday, Israel said, amid preparations at the war-torn enclave’s main entry gate, which has remained largely closed for almost two years.
Before the war, the Rafah border crossing with Egypt was the only direct exit point for most Gazans to reach the outside world, as well as being a crucial entry point for humanitarian aid into the territory. The crossing has been practically closed since May 2024 and is under Israeli military control on the Gaza side.
Cogat, the Israeli military unit responsible for humanitarian coordination, stated that the crossing will be reopened in both directions only to Gaza residents on foot. The operation will be coordinated with Egypt and the European Union.
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‘Today, a pilot project is underway to test and evaluate the operation of the passage. The movement of residents in both directions, entering and leaving Gaza, is expected to begin tomorrow,’ Cogat said in a statement.
A Palestinian official and a European source close to the European Union mission confirmed the details. The Egyptian Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
STRICT SECURITY
Israel said the crossing would be opened under strict security controls only to Palestinians who want to leave the war-torn enclave and to those who fled fighting in the early months of the conflict and want to return.
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Many of those expected to leave Gaza are sick and injured residents who need medical treatment abroad. The Palestinian Ministry of Health said there are 20,000 patients waiting to leave Gaza.
An Israeli defense official said the crossing could hold between 150 and 200 people in total, in both directions. The number of people leaving will be greater than the number of people returning, as patients leave accompanied by their families, the official added.
‘(Rafah’s passage) is our lifeline, we, the patients. We don’t have the resources to be treated in Gaza,’ said Moustafa Abdel Hadi, a kidney patient admitted to a hospital in central Gaza, who is awaiting a transplant abroad.
‘If the war affected a healthy person by 1%, on us the impact was 200%,’ he said, sitting while receiving dialysis treatment at Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Hospital. His travel request, according to him, was approved.
Two Egyptian officials said at least 50 Palestinian patients will be sent this Sunday to cross Rafah into Egypt for treatment. In the first few days, around 200 people, including patients and family members, will cross into Egypt daily, officials said, with 50 people returning to Gaza each day.
The lists of Gazans who must cross the border were sent by Egypt and approved by Israel, the official said.
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NEXT PHASE OF TRUMP’S PLAN FOR GAZA
Reopening the border crossing was a key requirement of the first phase of US President Donald Trump’s plan to end the war between Israel and Hamas.
But the ceasefire, which came into force in October after two years of fighting, has been repeatedly rocked by waves of violence.
According to local health officials, Israeli strikes in Gaza have killed more than 500 Palestinians since the ceasefire, and Palestinian militants have killed four Israeli soldiers, according to Israeli officials.
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On Saturday, Israel launched one of its most intense airstrikes since the ceasefire, killing at least 30 people, in an action that, according to the Israeli government, was a response to Hamas’ violation of the truce on Friday, when militants emerged from a tunnel in Rafah.
The next phases of Trump’s plan for Gaza call for the transfer of governance to Palestinian technocrats, for Hamas to lay down its weapons and for Israeli troops to withdraw from the territory, while an international force maintains peace and Gaza is rebuilt.
To date, Hamas has rejected disarmament and Israel has repeatedly indicated that if the Islamic militant group is not disarmed peacefully, it will use force to compel it to do so.
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(Additional reporting by Mahmoud Issa in Gaza and Ahmed Shalaby and Alexander Dziadosz in Cairo; writing by Maayan Lubell)
