Israel says Gaza’s Rafah crossing likely to reopen on Sunday

JERUSALEM/ISTANBUL

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said Thursday that the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt is likely to reopen on Sunday, the daily Yedioth Ahronoth reported.

He claimed that preparations are underway to reopen the terminal in the coming days, without providing further details.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty said early Thursday that Cairo was holding discussions with Israel for the opening of the border “literally to flood Gaza with food and relief materials,” as the situation in the enclave has reached “catastrophic” levels.

The Rafah crossing “is open from the Egyptian side 24/7,” he added.

The border crossing remained closed on Thursday from the Palestinian side despite a scheduled reopening on Wednesday under the first phase of a Gaza ceasefire agreement.

Since May 2024, the Israeli army has blocked the movement of Palestinians through the Rafah border crossing, the territory’s only window to the outside world that was not controlled by Tel Aviv before the start of the Israeli war in October 2023.

According to Israeli media, Tel Aviv refuses to reopen the crossing until it receives the remains of all Israeli hostages held by Hamas.

Hamas has already released 20 living Israeli hostages and handed over the remains of 10 more captives in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian prisoners under the ceasefire deal. The group said on Wednesday that it is exerting “great effort” to locate the remains of other captives.

The ceasefire agreement was reached between Israel and Hamas last week, based on a plan presented by US President Donald Trump. Phase one included the release of Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners. The plan also envisages the rebuilding of Gaza and the establishment of a new governing mechanism without Hamas.

Since October 2023, Israeli attacks have killed nearly 68,000 Palestinians in the enclave, most of them women and children, and rendered it largely uninhabitable.