Palestinians in Gaza watched with hope and impatience Sunday as workers laid the groundwork to reopen the territory’s Rafah border crossing with Egypt, its lifeline to the world. Israel says the crossing is scheduled to resume Monday as its ceasefire with Hamas moves ahead.
“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 woman from Khan Younis.
Israel said the crossing had opened in a test, and the Israeli military agency that controls aid to Gaza said residents could begin crossing Monday. But only a small number of people can cross at first.
“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 the city of Rafah who said her sick daughter needed help abroad. ”We want the crossing to be open permanently.”
Israel’s announcement came a day after Israeli strikes killed at least 30 Palestinians including several children, according to hospital officials – one of the highest death tolls since the ceasefire began on Oct. 10. Israel had accused Hamas of new truce violations.
Nicolay Mladenov, director-general of U.S. President Donald Trump’s new board of peace in Gaza, urged the parties to “exercise restraint” and said his office was working with the new Palestinian committee chosen to oversee Gaza to find ways that prevent future incidents.
Dozens will enter and leave
The Rafah crossing has been largely shut since Israel seized it in May 2024. About 20,000 Palestinian children and adults needing medical care are hoping to leave war-devastated Gaza via the crossing, and thousands of other Palestinians outside the territory hope to return home.
Few people, and no cargo, will be allowed to cross at first. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said Israel will allow 50 patients needing medical evacuation to leave daily. An official involved in the discussions, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss diplomatic talks, said each patient can travel with two relatives, while 50 people who left Gaza during the war can return each day.
Zaher al-Wahidi, head of the Gaza Health Ministry’s documentation department, told The Associated Press the ministry hadn’t been notified about the start of medical evacuations.
Israel has said it and Egypt will vet people for exit and entry through the crossing, which will be supervised by European Union border patrol agents. The number of travelers is expected to increase over time if the system is successful.
Also Sunday, Israel’s Diaspora Ministry said it was “moving to terminate” the operations of Doctors Without Borders in Gaza by Feb. 28.
Israel in December suspended the group’s operations there because it refused to comply with new registration requirements for organizations to submit lists of local employees. The medical charity said the regulations could endanger Palestinian staff.
Doctors Without Borders had no immediate comment. It has said Israel’s decision will have a catastrophic impact on its work in Gaza, where it provides funding and international staff for six hospitals and runs two field hospitals and eight primary health centers, clinics, and medical points. It also runs two of Gaza’s five stabilization centers helping children with severe malnutrition.
Israel has suspended over two dozen humanitarian organizations from operating in Gaza because of failure or refusal to comply with the new requirements.
The Diaspora Ministry, which proposed them, says they are aimed at preventing Hamas and other militant groups from infiltrating aid groups. The organizations call the rules arbitrary and warn that the bans harm a civilian population desperately in need of aid.
Gaza’s health sector has been devastated by two years of Israeli bombardment and restrictions on supplies.
Gaza’s main crossing
Palestinian security officers on Sunday passed through the Rafah crossing’s Egyptian gate and headed toward the Palestinian gate to join an EU mission that will supervise exit and entry, said an Egyptian official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak to the media. Ambulances also crossed through the Egyptian gate, the official said.
Before the war, Rafah was the main crossing for people moving in and out of Gaza. The territory has four other border crossings with Israel.
Israel called its 2024 seizure of the Rafah crossing part of efforts to combat Hamas arms smuggling. The crossing briefly opened for the evacuation of medical patients during a ceasefire in early 2025. Israel had resisted reopening the Rafah crossing again, but the recovery of the remains of the last hostage in Gaza last week cleared the way to move forward.
Under the ceasefire terms, Israel’s military controls the area between the Rafah crossing and the zone where most Palestinians live.
Fearing that Israel could use the crossing to push Palestinians out of the enclave, Egypt has repeatedly said it must be open for crossing in both directions. Historically, Israel and Egypt have vetted Palestinians applying to cross.
The ceasefire halted more than two years of war between Israel and Hamas that began with a Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, that killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 251 hostages.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed 71,795 Palestinians, including 523 since this ceasefire started, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. The ministry doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants in its figures. It maintains detailed casualty records that are seen as generally reliable by U.N. agencies and independent experts.
The ceasefire’s first phase called for the exchange of all hostages held in Gaza for hundreds of Palestinians held by Israel, a surge in humanitarian aid and a partial pullback of Israeli troops.
The second phase is more complicated. It calls for installing a new Palestinian committee to govern Gaza, deploying an international security force, disarming Hamas, and taking steps to begin rebuilding.
This story was reported by The Associated Press.
