Gaza Residents Look to Rafah Crossing With Hope and Anxiety as Israel Signals Reopening Under Ceasefire

By Anietie anii-bassey

Palestinians across Gaza watched closely Sunday as crews prepared the long-shuttered Rafah border crossing with Egypt for a limited reopening, a development many see as their only doorway to the outside world after years of war and isolation. Israel said the crossing would resume operations Monday as part of the fragile ceasefire with Hamas, though only a small number of people will initially be allowed to pass.

For families desperate to seek medical treatment abroad or return home after months of displacement, the prospect stirred cautious optimism — and frustration over what they fear will be a slow and tightly controlled process.

“Opening the crossing is a good step, but they set a limit on the number of people allowed to cross, and this is a problem,” said Ghalia Abu Mustafa, a resident of Khan Younis.

Israeli officials said the crossing had already opened briefly for testing and that Gaza residents could begin crossing the following day. Even so, the initial flow will be sharply restricted.

“We want a large number of people to leave, for it to be open so that sick people can go and return,” said Suhaila Al-Astal, a woman displaced from Rafah who said her daughter urgently needs treatment outside the territory. “We want the crossing to be open permanently.”

The announcement came amid renewed tension. Only a day earlier, Israeli airstrikes killed at least 30 Palestinians, including several children, according to hospital officials — among the deadliest incidents since the ceasefire began Oct. 10. Israel accused Hamas of new violations of the truce.

Nicolay Mladenov, head of a newly created Gaza peace body under U.S. President Donald Trump, urged both sides to avoid escalation and said his office was working with a newly formed Palestinian committee designated to oversee Gaza in an effort to prevent further clashes.

Under the initial arrangement, just dozens of people will be permitted to enter or leave Gaza each day. Rafah has been largely closed since Israeli forces seized it in May 2024, leaving the territory with almost no independent outlet to the outside world. Roughly 20,000 Palestinians — many of them children — are believed to be awaiting permission to leave for urgent medical care, while thousands more who fled during the fighting hope to return.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israel will allow 50 medical patients to exit daily. A person involved in the negotiations, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomacy, said each patient would be allowed to travel with two relatives, and that 50 Palestinians who left Gaza during the war could return each day.

Gaza’s Health Ministry has said it has not yet received formal notification about the start of medical evacuations. Israeli officials say both Israel and Egypt will vet those passing through the crossing, which will be overseen by European Union border monitors. If the process runs smoothly, the number of travelers is expected to increase.

At the same time, Israel signaled a further tightening of restrictions on humanitarian groups operating inside the enclave.

The country’s Diaspora Ministry said Sunday it was moving to end the activities of Doctors Without Borders in Gaza by Feb. 28, after suspending the organization in December over its refusal to comply with new registration rules requiring aid groups to submit lists of local staff. The medical charity has argued that such disclosures could place Palestinian employees in danger.

Doctors Without Borders said previously that removing it from Gaza would have catastrophic consequences for civilians, noting that it helps fund and staff six hospitals, operates two field hospitals and eight clinics and health posts, and runs two of the territory’s five stabilization centers for severely malnourished children. The group did not immediately respond to the latest announcement.

Israel has barred more than two dozen humanitarian organizations from Gaza for failing or refusing to meet the new requirements.

Officials say the rules are designed to prevent Hamas or other militant groups from infiltrating aid operations, while humanitarian agencies call the measures arbitrary and warn they are crippling relief efforts for a population facing acute shortages after years of bombardment and restrictions on supplies.

Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost crossing, long served as the enclave’s principal gateway for people traveling abroad.

On Sunday, Palestinian security officers passed through the Egyptian side of the terminal toward the Palestinian gate to join an EU mission that will supervise operations, according to an Egyptian official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief reporters. Ambulances also crossed from Egypt into the complex, the official said.

Israel has said its seizure of Rafah last year was aimed at stopping Hamas from smuggling weapons. The crossing reopened briefly during a short-lived ceasefire in early 2025 to allow some medical evacuations, but Israel had resisted restoring regular operations until last week, when the recovery of the remains of the final Israeli hostage held in Gaza cleared the way for renewed talks.

Under the current ceasefire terms, Israeli forces maintain control of the corridor between the Rafah crossing and the densely populated areas farther north, a point of concern for Egypt, which has repeatedly warned against any move that could force Palestinians permanently out of Gaza. Cairo has insisted the crossing must operate in both directions, as it has historically done with joint Israeli-Egyptian vetting of travelers.

The truce halted more than two years of fighting that began with the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, which killed about 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and resulted in the capture of 251 hostages.

Israel’s ensuing military campaign has killed 71,795 Palestinians, including 523 since the ceasefire began, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not differentiate between civilians and fighters but keeps detailed records that U.N. agencies and independent researchers generally regard as credible.

The ceasefire’s first phase included exchanges of Israeli hostages for hundreds of Palestinians held in Israeli prisons, a surge in humanitarian assistance and a partial withdrawal of Israeli troops.

Far more contentious negotiations lie ahead. A second phase envisions installing a new Palestinian governing body in Gaza, deploying an international security force, disarming Hamas and launching the immense task of reconstruction in a territory left in ruins.

For now, many in Gaza are focused on the gates at Rafah, hoping that their long-closed path to the outside world will finally begin to open — even if only a crack at first.