Israel says it will partially reopen the Rafah crossing to Gaza this Sunday
In a statement, it says that only residents who left Gaza during the war will be allowed entry.
BarcelonaIsrael says it will partially reopen the Rafah border crossing this Sunday, allowing passage between Egypt and Gaza "in both directions, with limited traffic," the Israeli government agency COGAT, which coordinates civilian operations in Gaza, said Friday. This border crossing is the only entry and exit point from Gaza outside of Israel for nearly all of the more than 2 million people who live there.
"The return of Egyptian residents to the Gaza Strip will be permitted, in coordination with Egypt, only for residents who left Gaza during the course of the war, and only after prior security authorization from Israel," reads a statement from the Israeli entity, specifying a mechanism similar to the one implemented in January 2025, referring to the first ceasefire since the start of the genocidal operation in October 2023.
Although the inhabitants of Gaza need humanitarian aid, for the moment it is expected that only the passage of people will be allowed, not goods and products. This worries international organizations such as the Red Cross: "Many people in Gaza are still living among the rubble and without basic services, struggling to stay warm amid the harsh winter conditions," said the president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Mirjana Spoljaric, in a statement this Friday.
Israel took control of Rafah in May 2024, about nine months after the war. After the start of the Gaza war, Israel blocked the passage of humanitarian aid under the pretext of pressuring Hamas. Reopening the border was a key requirement in the first phase of US President Donald Trump's plan to implement the ceasefire agreement reached in October. But it had been delayed until now because Israel had conditioned the move on the recovery of the body of the last Israeli hostage in Gaza. something that happened this week.
Empty Gaza of Palestinians
The fact that the return to Gaza of Palestinians currently in Egypt will only take place "after Israeli security authorization" raises fears that the reopening of the crossing will serve as a pretext for Israel to further depopulate the Gaza Strip. Indeed, diplomatic sources cited by Reuters maintain that Israel wants to use the crossing to ensure that more Palestinians leave than enter, despite Egypt's opposition. Another military source told the agency that the number of Palestinians who could be returned would be a maximum of 150 per day. NGOs have long been calling for the opening of the crossing, which they believe is necessary to allow the 16,500 sick and wounded Palestinians in need of urgent medical attention—according to World Health Organization data—to leave the enclave.