Rafah, Palestinian territories. Israel reopened the border crossing between Gaza and Egypt on Monday for a limited number of people on foot, allowing some Palestinians to leave and some who escaped the war to return.
Limited reopening under ceasefire requirements
The crossing is in Israeli-held territory in what was once a city of a quarter of a million people that Israel has since completely demolished and depopulated. It is the sole route in or out for nearly all of Gaza’s more than 2 million residents.
It has been largely shut for most of the war, and reopening it is one of the last major steps required under the initial phase of a U.S.-brokered ceasefire reached in October.
Expected movements and security checks
A Palestinian source said that on the first day 50 Palestinians were expected to enter Gaza, where they will face stringent Israeli security checks, and a similar number would be permitted to leave.
Those allowed to enter would be among the more than 100,000 Palestinians who had been able to escape Gaza in the early months of the war.
By mid-morning it was not yet clear how many, if any, had crossed. An Israeli security official confirmed Rafah had opened “for both entry and exit”.
Timeline and wider ceasefire plan
Israel seized the border crossing in May 2024, about nine months into the Gaza war that was brought to a tenuous halt by the October ceasefire brokered by U.S. President Donald Trump.
Reopening the crossing was one of the requirements under the first phase of Trump’s broader plan to stop fighting between Israel and Hamas militants. In January Trump declared the start of the second phase, meant to see the sides negotiate Gaza’s future governance and reconstruction.
Strikes reported as crossing reopens
Even as the crossing reopened, Israeli strikes killed at least four Palestinians on Monday, including a three-year-old boy, in separate incidents in the north and south of the Strip. The Israeli military had no immediate comment on the incidents.
Earlier wartime departures through Rafah
In the first nine months of the war some 100,000 Palestinians exited to Egypt through the Rafah crossing. Some were sponsored by aid groups. Some are believed to have paid bribes to secure permission to enter Egypt.
What do you expect the limited reopening of the Rafah crossing to change for Gaza residents seeking to leave or return?
