The border crossing between Gaza and Egypt is open, but few can use it – National
Gaza’s Rafah border crossing with Egypt reopened on Monday to limited traffic, a key step in the Israel-Hamas ceasefire but a highly symbolic development in the world as few people will be allowed to move anywhere and no goods will pass through.
However, in the first few hours of the opening, no one was seen crossing or leaving Gaza. An Egyptian official said that 50 Palestinians are expected to cross over on the first day of Rafah’s operation. About 20,000 Palestinian children and adults in need of medical assistance are hoping to leave the devastated Gaza crossing, according to Gaza health officials.
Thousands of other Palestinians outside the area hope to enter and return to their homes.
Egyptian state-run media and an Israeli security official also confirmed the reopening. The officials spoke to the Associated Press and asked not to be identified because they are not authorized to speak to the media.
Before the conflict, Rafah was a major crossing point for people entering and leaving Gaza. A number of other crossings were all assigned to Israel. Under the terms of the cease-fire, which went into effect in October, Israeli forces control the area between the Rafah crossing and the area where the majority of Palestinians live.
Violence continued in coastal areas on Monday, and Gaza hospital officials said an Israeli military ship fired at a tent camp, killing a 3-year-old Palestinian boy. The Israeli military said it was closely monitoring the incident.
Egypt to receive the injured
Rajaa Abu Mustafa stands on Monday outside a hospital in Gaza where his 17-year-old son Mohamed is waiting to be discharged. He was blinded by a shot in the eye last year when he joined desperate Palestinians seeking food from aid trucks east of the town of Khan Younis.
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“We were waiting for the crossing to be opened,” he said. “Now it is open and the health department called us and told us that we will go to Egypt to get (treatment).”
About 150 hospitals across Egypt are ready to receive Palestinian patients evacuated from Gaza via Rafah, authorities said. Also, the Egyptian Red Crescent said it has prepared “safe zones” on the Egyptian side of the crossing to support those displaced from the Gaza Strip.
Israel has blocked sending patients to hospitals in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem since the conflict began – a move that has cut off what has been a priority for Palestinians in need of medical treatment not available in Gaza.
Israel has also said that Egypt will check people leaving and entering the Rafah crossing, which will be monitored by agents on the border of the European Union with the Palestinian Authority. The number of travelers is expected to increase over time, if the plan is successful.
Fearing that Israel might use the crossing to push the Palestinians out of the area, Egypt has repeatedly said that it must be open for them to enter and exit Gaza. Historically, Israel and Egypt have screened Palestinian applicants for crossing.
Israeli fire kills a Palestinian child
A 3-year-old Palestinian man was killed on Monday when the Israeli navy rammed the tents of homeless people on the shores of the Gaza city of Khan Younis, Palestinian hospital authorities said.
According to Nasser Hospital, which received the body, the attack took place in Muwasi, a tented area on the Gaza Strip. The boy was the latest Palestinian in Gaza since the October ceasefire in Gaza.
More than 520 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire since the operation began on October 10, according to the Gaza health ministry. Those who have died since the ceasefire, UNICEF said included more than 100 children, are among more than 71,800 Palestinians killed since the start of the Israeli offensive, according to the ministry, which did not say how many were soldiers or civilians.
The ministry, which is part of the Hamas-led government in Gaza, maintains detailed casualty records deemed reliable by UN agencies and independent experts.
Israeli forces seized the Rafah crossing in May 2024, calling it part of efforts to combat arms smuggling by the Hamas terrorist group. The crossing was briefly opened to evacuate medical patients during the ceasefire in early 2025.
Israel refused to reopen the Rafah crossing, but the discovery of the remains of the last hostages in Gaza paved the way for further progress.
The reopening is seen as an important step as the US-brokered ceasefire enters its second phase. In time, Rafah is expected to step up operations if the ceasefire continues.
The deal ended more than two years of conflict between Israel and Hamas that began with a Hamas-led offensive in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Its first phase called for the exchange of all hostages held in Gaza for hundreds of Palestinians held by Israel, an increase in much-needed humanitarian aid and a gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces.
The second phase of the cease-fire agreement is more difficult. It calls for the installation of a new Palestinian committee to govern Gaza, the deployment of an international security force, the disarmament of Hamas and the start of reconstruction.
© 2026 The Canadian Press
