For Palestinians in Gaza, the Rafah border crossing to Egypt is their gateway to the world. But since Israel seized it in May 2024, it has been largely shut.
Now Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the crossing will reopen soon, as the U.S.-brokered Israel-Hamas ceasefire plan moves into its second phase.
That raises hopes for thousands of war-wounded Palestinians seeking travel abroad for medical care, and for tens of thousands of people outside Gaza seeking to return home.
“Everyone in Gaza, from families who have children who are urgently awaiting medical evacuation, to students who have scholarships abroad, and others who are separated from their families, they are all looking desperately to see what happens with the Rafah border crossing,” Alexandra Saieh, head of global strategic influencing and policy with aid organization Save the Children, told CBC News.
But those hoping to cross will face tight controls. Under conditions Netanyahu stipulates, only dozens of Palestinians will be allowed through the crossing each day, and no goods will cross for now. All of Gaza’s other border crossings are with Israel.
An Israeli official who spoke with The Associated Press on condition of anonymity in accordance with policy said the Rafah crossing would open in the coming days. A person familiar with discussions on the reopening said they had been told it could come as early as Thursday.
Ali Shaath, newly appointed to head the Palestinian administrative committee governing Gaza’s daily affairs, said on Jan. 22 that the crossing would “open next week in both directions.”
“Opening Rafah signals Gaza is no longer closed to the future and to the world,” he said in a video the White House posted on X last week.
Aid organizations call for more access, essential goods
Preparations are underway to let a limited number of medical evacuees leave Gaza first.
There are conflicting reports on how many people can cross each day. The Israeli official said 50 Palestinians will be allowed in and 50 out daily. The person familiar with discussions said 50 would be allowed in daily and 150 out.
That means a long wait for many of the estimated 20,000 sick and wounded that the territory’s health ministry says need treatment outside of Gaza, where Israeli attacks have devastated the health-care system.
At a rate of 50 evacuations a day, it would take more than a year for every one of those 20,000 to leave.
One specific rule is blocking Palestinian students who have already been accepted into Canadian universities from entering the country.
Saieh told CBC News that Israel’s plan to control who enters and leaves is “incredibly concerning” but “unsurprising,” and Save the Children is calling for the Israeli government to allow unfettered access.
She says she hopes the opening also allows for an increase in desperately needed humanitarian assistance, from basic medical aid to basic shelter supplies. Palestinians have also long reported vast shortages of fuel and other essentials.
Save the Children is also calling for a medical corridor to be opened between Gaza and East Jerusalem, where hospitals could take people who require medical evacuation.
“The opening of Rafah should be unconditional,” Saieh said. “People should have the right to freedom of movement, and unfortunately that has been robbed from Palestinians in Gaza.”
Meanwhile, at least 30,000 Palestinians have registered with the Palestinian Embassy in Cairo for return to Gaza, according to an embassy official, speaking on condition of anonymity because details of the reopening remain under discussion.
The United Nations wants the crossing open for “both humanitarian cargo and private sector cargo, which is critically important for reviving the economy in Gaza,” spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said Wednesday.
The UN’s deputy Middle East co-ordinator, Ramiz Alakbarov, told a UN Security Council meeting that humanitarian workers face “delays and denials of cargo at crossings and limited routes available for transporting supplies within Gaza.”
Multiple countries, institutions involved
A complex web of countries and institutions will oversee the Rafah crossing, but Israel has control over who enters or exits.
Egypt will provide Israel with a list of names daily to vet and decide on, the Israeli official said.
Under the ceasefire terms, Israel’s military controls the area between the Rafah crossing and the zone where most Palestinians live. COGAT, Israel’s military body in charge of co-ordinating aid to Gaza, will bus Palestinians to and from the crossing, the official said.
There will be no Israeli soldiers at the crossing, the official said, but Palestinians exiting and entering would undergo Israeli security screening inside Gaza. In the past, such screenings have been conducted by Israeli soldiers and private U.S. contractors.
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Images provided by The Canadian Press, Reuters and Getty Images
“Anyone entering or exiting undergoes our inspection, a full inspection,” Netanyahu said Tuesday.
Officers from the EU Border Assistance Mission and the Palestinian Authority will run the crossing.
Plainclothes officers with the Palestinian Authority will stamp passports, as they did during a brief ceasefire at the start of 2025 and before Hamas wrested control of Gaza in 2007, Palestinian officials told The Associated Press.
Crossing has long been point of contention
Even before the war, Palestinians faced heavy restrictions at Rafah.
Egypt, alongside Israel, imposed a blockade after Hamas seized power in Gaza in 2007. It reopened the crossing after Egypt’s 2011 revolution but closed it in 2013 after the military ousted president Mohammed Morsi, a leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamist movement from which Hamas emerged.
Egypt gradually allowed the Rafah crossing to reopen in the years that followed, but the on-and-off restrictions led to a massive tunnel economy that sprung up beneath it.
Tunnels served as an economic lifeline for Gaza and a conduit for weapons and cash, according to Israeli and Egyptian officials. Hamas collected taxes and customs on goods passing through the crossing.
Netanyahu said his focus is on disarming Hamas, a challenging part of the U.S.-brokered ceasefire’s second phase, and destroying its remaining tunnels. He said there would be no reconstruction in Gaza without demilitarization, a stance that could make Israel’s control over the Rafah crossing a key point of leverage.
