#gazaborder

Most people talk about the Israeli blockade of Gaza — but forget Gaza shares a border with Egypt.

Egypt controlled Gaza for decades, shut its border after Hamas’s rise, and has cracked down harshly — even flooding Hamas tunnels with sewage.

Yet since October 7, Egypt has allowed Hamas to continue smuggling weapons through tunnels and drones, despite claiming to stop it.

Officials say Gaza residents travelling on foot only will be allowed through border point, which was shut in May 2024

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Gaza’s main border crossing in Rafah will reopen for Palestinians on Monday, Israel has said, with preparations under way at the war-ravaged territory’s gateway, which has been mostly closed for almost two years.

Before the war, the Rafah crossing with Egypt was the only direct exit point for most Palestinians in Gaza to reach the outside world as well as a key entry point for aid. It has been largely shut since May 2024.

Cogat, the Israeli agency charged with administration of Gaza, said the crossing would reopen in both directions for Gaza residents on foot only and its operation would be coordinated with Egypt and the EU.

“Today, a pilot is under way to test and assess the operation of the crossing. The movement of residents in both directions, entry and exit to and from Gaza, is expected to begin tomorrow,” Cogat said on Sunday.

A Palestinian official and a source close to the EU mission confirmed the details. The Egyptian foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Israel has said the crossing will open under stringent security checks only for Palestinians who wish to leave the war-ravaged territory and for those who fled the fighting in the first months of the war to return.

Many of those expected to leave are sick and wounded people in need of medical care abroad. The Palestinian health ministry has said there are about 20,000 patients waiting to leave Gaza.

An Israeli defence official said the crossing could hold between 150 and 200 people altogether in both directions. There would be more people leaving than returning because patients left together with escorts, the official added. Lists of people due to pass through the crossing had been submitted by Egypt and approved by Israel, the official said.

Reopening the border crossing was a key requirement of the first phase of the US president Donald Trump’s plan to end the conflict. But the ceasefire, which came into effect in October after two years of fighting, has been repeatedly shaken by rounds of violence.

Israeli attacks in Gaza have killed more than 500 Palestinians since the ceasefire began, local health officials say, and Palestinian militants have killed four Israeli troops, according to Israeli authorities.

On Saturday, Israel launched some of its most intense airstrikes since the ceasefire, killing at least 30 people, in what it said was a response to a Hamas violation of the truce on Friday when militants emerged from a tunnel in Rafah.

The next phases of Trump’s plan for Gaza require governance to be handed to Palestinian technocrats, Hamas to lay down its weapons and Israeli troops to withdraw from the territory while an international force keeps the peace and Gaza is rebuilt.