The sole border crossing between Gaza and Egypt reopened on Monday after being largely closed for 20 months, a symbolic, if halting, step forward in Israel’s cease-fire with Hamas.
The reopening of the crossing, in the Rafah area of southern Gaza, will, for the first time, allow some Gazans who fled during the two-year war to return, but only in limited numbers for now. It is also expected to expedite the exit of thousands of sick and wounded people waiting for medical treatment abroad.
The hope is that the reopening of the Rafah crossing will be a move toward gradually improving conditions for Palestinians in Gaza.
But in a seemingly faltering start of the operation, only a small number of Palestinians appeared to have received clearances to pass through the crossing on Monday morning. It was unclear by nightfall how many Palestinians had crossed the border in either direction.
At a Palestinian Red Crescent Society hospital in Khan Younis, a city in southern Gaza, a minibus departed for the Rafah crossing shortly after 1 p.m. with five patients, each accompanied by two caregivers.
Mohammed Mahdi, 25, was escorting his father, Akram Mahdi, 61, a mechanical engineer. The elder Mr. Mahdi was wounded in April 2024 in an Israeli airstrike near their home, in a refugee camp in central Gaza, according to his son.
Shrapnel tore into his face, blinding him in his right eye and damaging his left one. Doctors in Gaza could do little more than stabilize him, his son said.
“Finally, we can get advanced treatment abroad,” Mohammed Mahdi said before boarding the minibus.
Israel and Egypt disagreed for months over the terms of the reopening, which is part of President Trump’s plan for ending the Gaza war. A shaky cease-fire took effect in October, but Israel kept the crossing closed as leverage until the last of the hostages seized in the Hamas-led attack of Oct. 7, 2023, were returned to Israel, alive or dead.
A week ago, the Israeli military said it had retrieved the remains of the last remaining captive, Master Sgt. Ran Gvili, a police officer who was shot during the Oct. 7 attack, which set off the war.
Underscoring the fragility of the cease-fire, the Israeli military launched a series of airstrikes on Saturday in Gaza that killed at least 26 people, including several children, according to local health officials.
The Israeli military said it had targeted militants and weapons facilities in response to what it called a violation of the cease-fire by Hamas fighters in the Rafah area the day before.
Before Israel seized the Rafah crossing in May 2024, it was a lifeline and a pressure valve for Gaza’s roughly two million residents. Israel and Egypt have tightly controlled the territory’s land borders for years, and Israel has long maintained a naval blockade on the enclave, citing a need to stop weapons smuggling. The passage opened briefly during a temporary cease-fire last winter, but only to allow some Gazans to leave the enclave to obtain medical treatment abroad.
Now that it has reopened, the crossing will be strictly supervised and operated at limited capacity, with dozens of people allowed to enter or exit each day, according to officials.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said last week that Israel would be in charge of overall security, though Israeli forces would not be present at the crossing. He suggested that about 50 people might be let in daily, and that more would be allowed to leave.
“We are not going to prevent anyone from leaving,” he said.
At least initially, truckloads of goods will not be allowed in via the Rafah crossing.
A daily list of people planning to enter or leave Gaza will be submitted by Egypt to the Israeli authorities for vetting, according to officials familiar with the details of the arrangements.
They said a civilian security team from the European Union would monitor the crossing with the help of employees of the Palestinian Authority, which administers parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank. That is a system similar to the one used previously.
