The Rafah border between Gaza and Egypt is to reopen after nearly two years of near-total closure.
The resumption of travel through the crucial border crossing – which sits between Gaza and Egypt – is one of the key steps of the US brokered Israel-Hamas ceasefire.
On Sunday Israel announced that the crossing had been opened as part of a test to assess its operation. It said that on Monday it will be opened for the movement of residents in both directions.
A European Union mission will be supervising exit and entry at the crossing, an Egyptian official told the Associated Press.
They also revealed that Palestinian security officers and ambulances had already passed through the Egyptian gate and into Gaza. Only a few people and no goods will be allowed to travel at first.
Some 20,000 people in need of medical care are hoping to leave devastated Gaza via the crossing. On the other side of the fence there are thousands of Palestinians in Egypt hoping to return home.
Middle East correspondent
The opening of the Rafah Crossing will be symbolically important. But its immediate impact will be limited.
It seems that Israel will allow only very small numbers to go in either direction – a total of up to 150 leaving Gaza each day, comprising 50 people requiring medical treatment, each accompanied by a maximum of two companions, and 50 people going in the other direction.
So this is where the maths comes into play. The only people allowed to enter Gaza are those who left during the course of the war, a number that Israel estimates at 42,000.
At a rate of 50 per day, it would take them more than two years for all those people to get back.
Going in the other direction, Palestinian authorities say there are around 6,000 people requiring urgent medical treatment. At that same rate – 50 people crossing per day – that would mean waiting for about four months for them all to cross.
Palestinian medical sources suggest that some will die of their conditions before they can cross. And it’s worth remembering that these are not all people injured by war.
Gaza’s health system has been largely destroyed, so people suffering from serious illnesses are all desperate for the treatment they cannot get without leaving.
A few hundred civilians per day is not the busy crisis-cross of people envisaged by some when the peace deal was announced, nor the flow of aid that many hoped for.
It may be that, in the coming days and weeks, the rate of flow is increased, but that will be dependent on Israel’s risk assessment.
It is screening everyone who applies to go in either direction, and that process is not fast. The Rafah Crossing may be open, but not in the way the world might have imagined.
Zaher al-Wahidi, head of the Gaza health ministry’s documentation department – run by the Hamas-led government – told The Associated Press that they have not been notified about the start of medical evacuations.
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But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he will allow 50 patients a day to leave.
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An anonymous official involved in the plans added that they will be allowed to travel with two relatives.
They claimed a further 50 people who left Gaza during the war will be allowed to return each day. But Israel say they will be vetted before crossing and stay under the supervision of European Union border agents.
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The numbers allowed through the crossing are expected to increase over time if the system is judged successful. The news comes just a day after an Israeli airstrike killed at least 30 Palestinians in Gaza.
Among the dead were two women and six children, health officials said.
Rafah is often considered by Gazans as their gateway to the rest of the world but since 2024 it has been largely restricted by Israel, which claims it had been used by Hamas to smuggle weapons.
The crossing was briefly reopened early last year to allow the evacuation of medical patients.
Earlier this month Hollywood actor Angelina Jolie visited Rafah as part of a humanitarian trip.
The move to finally reopen it indefinitely comes after the remains of the final Israeli hostage were evacuated from Gaza.
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It marks a key step in a ceasefire agreement, brokered by Donald Trump’s US administration, as it moves into its second phase. Gaza has four other border crossings. But, unlike Rafah, they are shared with Israel.
