TEL AVIV: Israel wants to restrict the number of Palestinians entering Gaza through the border crossing with Egypt to ensure that more are allowed out than in, three sources briefed on the matter said ahead of the border’s expected opening next week.
The head of a transitional Palestinian committee backed by the US to temporarily administer Gaza, Ali Shaath, announced on Thursday that the Rafah Border Crossing — effectively the sole route in or out of Gaza for nearly all of the more than 2 million people who live there — would open next week.
The border was supposed to have opened during the initial phase of President Donald Trump’s plan to end the war, under a ceasefire reached in October between Israel and Hamas.
Earlier this month, Washington announced that the plan had now moved into the second phase, under which Israel is expected to withdraw troops further from Gaza and Hamas is due to yield control of the territory’s administration. The Gaza side of the crossing has been under Israeli military control since 2024.
The three sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue, said it was still not clear how Israel planned to enforce limits on the number of Palestinians entering Gaza from Egypt, or what ratio of exits to entries it aimed to achieve.
Israeli officials have spoken in the past about encouraging Palestinians to emigrate from Gaza, although they deny intending to transfer the population out by force. Palestinians are highly sensitive to any suggestion that Gazans could be expelled, or that those who leave temporarily could be barred from returning.
The Rafah Crossing is expected to be staffed by Palestinians affiliated with the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority and monitored by EU personnel, as took place during an earlier, weeks-long ceasefire between Israel and Hamas early last year.
The Israeli prime minister’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment for this story. The military referred questions to the government, declining to comment.
The three sources said that Israel also wants to establish a military checkpoint inside Gaza near the border, through which all Palestinians entering or leaving would be required to pass and be subjected to Israeli security checks.
Two other sources also said that Israeli officials had insisted on setting up a military checkpoint in Gaza to screen Palestinians moving in and out.
The US Embassy in Israel did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether Washington supported Israel in limiting the number of Palestinians entering Gaza or setting up a checkpoint to screen those entering and leaving.
Under the initial phase of Trump’s plan, the Israeli military partially pulled back its forces within Gaza but retained control of 53 percent of the territory including the entire land border with Egypt. Nearly all of the territory’s population lives in the rest of Gaza, under Hamas control and mostly in makeshift tents or damaged buildings.
The sources said that it was not clear how individuals would be dealt with if they were blocked by Israel’s military from passing through its checkpoint, particularly those entering from Egypt.
The Israeli government has repeatedly objected to the opening of the border, with some officials saying Hamas must first return the body of an Israeli police officer held in Gaza, the final human remains of a hostage due to be transferred under the ceasefire’s first phase.
US officials in private say that Washington, not Israel, is driving the rollout of the president’s plan to end the war.
Israel aims to ensure more Palestinians are let out of Gaza than back in
https://arab.news/nesav
Israel aims to ensure more Palestinians are let out of Gaza than back in
- It was still not clear how Israel planned to enforce limits on the number of Palestinians entering Gaza from Egypt
- Sources said Israeli officials had insisted on setting up a military checkpoint in Gaza to screen Palestinians moving in and out
Israel agrees to reopen Rafah crossing only for Gaza pedestrians
- The announcement came after visiting US envoys reportedly pressed Israeli officials to reopen the crossing, a vital entry point for aid into Gaza
JERUSALEM: Israel said Monday it would only allow pedestrians to travel through the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt as part of its “limited reopening” once it has recovered the remains of the last hostage in the Palestinian territory.
Reopening Rafah, a vital entry point for aid into Gaza, forms part of a truce framework announced by US President Donald Trump in October, but the crossing has remained closed since Israeli forces took control of it during the war in the Palestinian territory.
Visiting US envoys had reportedly pressed Israeli officials to reopen the crossing during talks in Jerusalem over the weekend.
World leaders and aid agencies have repeatedly pushed for more humanitarian convoys to be able to access Gaza, which has been left devastated by more than two years of war and depends on the inflow of essential medical equipment, food and other supplies.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said on Monday that Israel had agreed to a reopening “for pedestrian passage only, subject to a full Israeli inspection mechanism.”
The move would depend on “the return of all living hostages and a 100 percent effort by Hamas to locate and return all deceased hostages,” it said on X.
It remained unclear whether the reopening would allow medical patients to leave Gaza for treatment in Egypt or other countries.
The Israeli military said it was searching a cemetery in the Gaza Strip on Sunday for the remains of the last hostage, Ran Gvili.
“Upon completion of this operation, and in accordance with what has been agreed upon with the US, Israel will open the Rafah Crossing,” said Netanyahu’s office.
The announcement came after Gaza’s newly appointed administrator, Ali Shaath, said the crossing would open “in both directions” this week.
“For Palestinians in Gaza, Rafah is more than a gate, it is a lifeline and a symbol of opportunity,” Shaath said at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Thursday.
Israeli media had also reported that US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner had urged Netanyahu to reopen Rafah during their Jerusalem talks.
Before the war erupted in October 2023, Rafah had been the only gateway connecting Gazans to the outside world and enabling international humanitarian aid to enter the territory, home to 2.2 million people living under Israeli blockade.
Last hostage
A spokesman for Hamas’s Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, Abu Obeida, said on Sunday that the group had “provided mediators with all the details and information in our possession regarding the location of the captive’s body,” referring to Gvili.
Obeida added that “the enemy (Israel) is currently searching one of the sites based on information transmitted by the Al-Qassam Brigades.”
Except for Gvili, all of the 251 people taken hostage during Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel have since been returned, whether living or dead.
A non-commissioned officer in the Israeli police’s elite Yassam unit, Gvili was killed in action on the day of the attack and his body was taken to Gaza.
The first phase of the US-backed ceasefire deal had stipulated that Hamas hand over all the hostages in Gaza.
Gvili’s family has expressed strong opposition to launching the second phase of the plan, which includes reopening Rafah, before they have received his remains.
“First and foremost, Ran must be brought home,” his family said in a statement on Sunday.
The Gaza war was sparked by Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,221 people, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
The Israeli retaliation flattened much of Gaza, a territory that was already suffering severely from previous rounds of fighting and from an Israeli blockade imposed since 2007.
The two-year war between Israel and Hamas has left at least 71,657 people dead in Gaza, according to the territory’s health ministry, figures considered reliable by the United Nations.
