Israel said on Sunday that it had reopened the Rafah crossing connecting Gaza and Egypt but in a limited capacity, with only people leaving or returning to the territory to be allowed to pass through from Monday.
Cogat, the Israeli Defence Ministry body co-ordinating Palestinian civilian affairs, described Sunday's opening as an "initial pilot phase", carried out with support from Egypt and the European Union Border Assistance Mission, "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 in post on X.
Sources in Cairo told The National that there are lingering differences between Egypt and Israel over the rules governing the passage of travellers in both directions. Egypt is in contact with the US to resolve them, they said.
Reopening the crossing was a requirement under the first phase of US President Donald Trump's plan to stop fighting between Israel and Hamas, after a ceasefire was agreed on in October, but was delayed by Israel until the body of the last Israeli hostage in Gaza was recovered, which happened on Monday.
The foreign ministers of eight Arab and Islamic countries, including Egypt, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey and Jordan, issued a joint statement on Sunday condemning "Israel’s repeated violations" of the ceasefire after Israeli strikes that killed at least 32 people in Gaza a day earlier.
"These actions risk escalating tension and undermining efforts aimed at consolidating calm and restoring stability, at a time when regional and international parties are working collectively to advance the second phase of President Donald Trump’s peace plan and to implement UN Security Council Resolution 2803," said the statement, which was also signed by Pakistan and Indonesia.
Officials in Gaza say about 20,000 residents are waiting to leave the territory for medical treatment. The sources in Cairo said as many as 22,000 Palestinians living in Egypt have registered at the Palestine embassy in the Egyptian capital to return to Gaza.
Members of a UN-sanctioned Palestinian committee to run Gaza instead of Hamas are scheduled to enter from Egypt on Monday, the sources said. They had been expected to cross on Thursday but the sources did not provide a reason for the delay.
"Their passage tomorrow is virtually certain because the International Stabilisation Force is expected to be deployed next week," said one of the sources.
Israel seized the Palestinian side of the Rafah border crossing about nine months into the Gaza war, which broke out in October 2023.
Mr Trump's 20-point peace plan called for the Rafah crossing to open for aid to enter “without interference”, and its prolonged closure had been regarded as an unfulfilled element of the deal. There has been no word on when the crossing will reopen for humanitarian aid.
The crossing, on Gaza’s southern border, acts as a lifeline for Palestinians in the territory who, even before the outbreak of the war, depended on at least 600 aid lorries entering each day.
This number dwindled significantly during the two-year conflict. Despite the ceasefire mandating that aid return to prewar figures, an average of 144 lorries a day entered in November and 158 in December.
Aid organisations are also under pressure from Israeli authorities to comply with a new registration process that requires them to provide personal information about their staff. Dozens face having their access to Gaza suspended after rejecting this condition. Israel said on Sunday that the medical charity Doctors Without Borders would not be able to operate in Gaza after February for failing to comply.
The sources said Egypt was dealing with the reopening of the Rafah crossing with maximum caution, fearing Israel might take advantage of the situation to engineer many more departures from Gaza than entries.
Israel has floated a ratio of 200 departures for every 50 arriving, the sources said, and is expected to significantly relax security screening for Palestinians wishing to leave.
Leaving Gaza is an extremely sensitive issue for the strip's estimated two million people, many of whom were forced to leave homes in what is now Israel during and after its creation in 1948, in what Palestinians call the Nakba, or calamity.
Apparently sensing Israel's desire to see as many Palestinians as possible leave Gaza and never return, Egypt's President Abdel Fattah El Sisi and King Abdullah II of Jordan on Sunday said they were uncompromisingly opposed to the resettlement of Palestinians away from their homeland.
A statement by the Egyptian presidency issued after the two leaders met in Cairo said they also emphasised during their talks that only the creation of an independent Palestinian state in Gaza and the occupied West Bank would bring permanent peace and stability to the Middle East.
As well as the October 10 ceasefire, increased aid and the opening of the Rafah crossing, the first phase of Mr Trump's peace plan mandated the release of all hostages held by Hamas in exchange for hundreds of Palestinians detained by Israel, and the withdrawal of Israeli troops to a "yellow line" that left them in control of about 53 per cent of Gaza.
The second phase of the plan includes the condition of handing over the territory's governance to the UN-sanctioned Palestinian committee, the disarmament of Hamas and the deployment of an International Stabilisation Force to maintain security in the strip.
A Board of Peace, chaired by Mr Trump, will oversee the implementation of the plan and the reconstruction of Gaza.
The Gaza war was caused by a Hamas attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, that killed about 1,200 people. Israel responded with a military campaign that killed more than 71,000, wounded more than twice that number and destroyed much of the enclave, leaving most of the estimated two million population homeless.
Israel's conduct during the war has drawn accusations of genocide, war crimes and starving Gazans. Israel rejects the accusations.
