Gaza's Rafah border crossing with Egypt has reopened for the first time in nearly a year, an Israeli security official said on Monday. It will allow limited movement of medical patients and returning residents under the supervision of European monitoring teams who have arrived at the crossing.
The southern gate to the Gaza Strip has swung open for the first time in nearly a year to regular, albeit highly restricted, civilian movement, reviving hopes for thousands of Palestinians stranded in the war-torn enclave.
Operational for the first time since brief medical evacuations in early 2025, the Rafah crossing is now functioning under a complex new security architecture. While initial throughput is minimal, with only 50 individuals permitted to cross in either direction each day, the move is being hailed by diplomats as a tangible “proof of concept” for the stability of the ongoing ceasefire.
Humanitarian logistics and the return of European oversight
The immediate priority for the reopened terminal is the evacuation of the most critical medical cases. According to the Egyptian health ministry, a triage system has been established to transfer patients directly to 150 designated hospitals across Egypt. For the 20,000 injured and chronically ill Palestinians currently languishing in Gaza’s decimated healthcare system, the reopening represents their only chance of survival. Under current protocols, each patient is permitted to travel with two family members, a policy designed to prevent the separation of families during long-term treatment abroad.
At the same time, a small number of Palestinians who were stranded outside Gaza when the war erupted are being processed for return, beginning the slow reunification of a fragmented population.
Crucially, the security mechanism governing the crossing has been completely overhauled from the pre-war status quo. Operations are now supervised by European Union border patrol agents (EUBAM), who have returned to the terminal for the first time since 2007. Their presence provides a neutral buffer, tasked with ensuring the terminal is not used for illicit purposes while facilitating humanitarian flows.
However, ultimate authority over who passes through remains subject to a strict joint-vetting process by Israeli and Egyptian intelligence. Israel continues to maintain a military cordon between the crossing and populated areas of Gaza, ensuring that no movement occurs without direct oversight. This layered security approach aims to rebuild trust between Cairo and Tel Aviv, addressing Israeli concerns over arms smuggling while satisfying Egypt’s demand that the border remains a sovereign Palestinian-Egyptian gateway rather than an Israeli-run exit point.
Navigating the diplomatic minefield of 'Phase Two'
The reopening of Rafah is inextricably linked to the broader geopolitical framework of the ceasefire agreement, specifically President Donald Trump’s “20-point plan”, brokered late last year. The truce, which initially took effect on 10 October 2025, has held despite sporadic violations but is now entering its most perilous stage: Phase Two.
The first phase focused largely on the exchange of hostages and prisoners, a tragic chapter that effectively closed last week with the recovery of the remains of the final Israeli hostage. With that emotive and political hurdle cleared, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government has given the green light to proceed with the more structural aspects of the deal, of which the Rafah crossing is the first domino.
Phase Two is designed to be transformative but is fraught with the potential for collapse. It mandates the disarmament of remaining Hamas battalions, the deployment of an international security force, and the establishment of a new, technocratic Palestinian governing committee to replace Hamas’s administrative rule. The reopening of Rafah is intended to build political capital and goodwill among the Palestinian population to support this transition.
However, deep anxieties remain in Cairo. Egypt has consistently warned that Israel might use the crossing to permanently displace Palestinians into the Sinai Peninsula under the guise of humanitarian evacuation. To mitigate this, the current agreement includes strict caps on daily numbers and rigorous documentation requirements.
As the ceasefire progresses, international mediators hope to scale up the crossing’s capacity to allow for the entry of commercial goods and reconstruction materials, without which the physical rebuilding of Gaza cannot begin. The success or failure of this limited opening is likely to determine the pace of the entire post-war recovery process.
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