Gaza’s Rafah border crossing with Egypt reopened on Monday for limited traffic, a key step within the Israel-Hamas ceasefire but a mostly symbolic development on the bottom as few people might be allowed to travel in either direction and no goods will go through it.
Throughout the first few hours of the opening, nevertheless, nobody was seen crossing in or out of Gaza. An Egyptian official said 50 Palestinians were expected to cross in each direction on the primary day of Rafah’s operation. About 20,000 Palestinian children and adults needing medical care hope to depart the devastated Gaza via the crossing, in accordance with Gaza health officials.
1000’s of other Palestinians outside the territory hope to enter and return home.
State-run Egyptian media and an Israeli security official also confirmed the reopening. The officials spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss with the media.
Before the conflict, Rafah was the important crossing for people moving out and in of Gaza. The territory’s handful of other crossings are all shared with Israel. Under the terms of the ceasefire, which went into effect in October, Israel’s military controls the world between the Rafah crossing and the zone where most Palestinians live.
Violence still continued across the coastal territory Monday, and Gaza hospital officials said an Israeli navy ship had fired on a tent camp, killing a 3-year-old Palestinian boy. Israel’s military said it was looking into the incident.
Egypt to receive the wounded
Rajaa Abu Mustafa stood Monday outside a Gaza hospital where her 17-year-old son Mohamed was awaiting evacuation. He was blinded by a shot to the attention last yr as he joined desperate Palestinians searching for food from aid trucks east of the town of Khan Younis.
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“Now we have been waiting for the crossing to open,” she said. “Now it’s opened and the health ministry called and told us that we are going to travel to Egypt for (his) treatment.”
About 150 hospitals across Egypt are able to receive Palestinian patients evacuated from Gaza through Rafah, authorities said. Also, the Egyptian Red Crescent said it has readied “protected spaces” on the Egyptian side of the crossing to support those evacuated from the Gaza Strip.
Israel has banned sending patients to hospitals within the Israeli-occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem because the conflict began — a move that cut off what was previously the important outlet for Palestinians needing medical treatment unavailable in Gaza.
Israel has said it and Egypt will vet people for exit and entry through the Rafah crossing, which might be supervised by European Union border patrol agents with a small Palestinian presence. The numbers of travelers are expected to extend over time, if the system is successful.
Fearing that Israel could use the crossing to push Palestinians out of the enclave, Egypt has repeatedly said it should be open for them to enter and exit Gaza. Historically, Israel and Egypt have vetted Palestinians applying to cross.
Israeli fire kills Palestinian toddler
A 3-year-old Palestinian was killed Monday when Israel navy hit tents sheltering displaced people on the coast of Gaza’s southern city of Khan Younis, Palestinian hospital authorities said.
In response to the Nasser hospital, which received the body, the attack happened in Muwasi, a tent camp area on the Gaza Strip’s coast. The boy was the newest amongst Palestinians in Gaza because the October ceasefire in Gaza.
Greater than 520 Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire because the ceasefire went into effect on Oct. 10, in accordance with Gaza’s health ministry. The casualties because the ceasefire, which UNICEF said include greater than 100 children, are among the many over 71,800 Palestinians killed because the start of Israel’s offensive, in accordance with ministry, which doesn’t say what number of were fighters or civilians.
The ministry, which is an element of Gaza’s Hamas-led government, keeps detailed casualty records which are seen as generally reliable by U.N. agencies and independent experts.
Israeli troops seized the Rafah crossing in May 2024, calling it a part of efforts to combat arms-smuggling for the militant Hamas group. The crossing was briefly opened for the evacuation of medical patients during a ceasefire in early 2025.
Israel had resisted reopening the Rafah crossing, however the recovery of the stays of the last hostage in Gaza cleared the solution to move forward.
The reopening is seen as a key step because the U.S.-brokered ceasefire agreement moves into its second phase. In time, Rafah is anticipated to ramp up operations if the ceasefire holds.
The truce halted greater than two years of conflict between Israel and Hamas that began with the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Its first phase called for the exchange of all hostages held in Gaza for a whole lot of Palestinians held by Israel, a rise in badly needed humanitarian aid and a partial pullback of Israeli troops.
The second phase of the ceasefire deal is more complicated. It calls for installing the brand new Palestinian committee to control Gaza, deploying a global security force, disarming Hamas and taking steps to start rebuilding.
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