The discovery of the last remaining hostage body in Gaza on Monday has cleared the way for Israel to reopen the enclave's Rafah crossing with Egypt, after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said late on Sunday that it would do so when the search operation was completed.
The crossing was supposed to have opened during the initial phase of the US President Donald Trump's plan to end the war, under a ceasefire reached in October between Israel and Hamas. US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner were in Israel on Sunday and reportedly pushing for the reopening of the crossing before the last hostage's body was found, drawing criticism from the far-right.
Israel had demanded, as a condition for reopening the border, the release of all living hostages held by Palestinian militant factions in Gaza as well as a “100 per cent effort” by Hamas to locate and return the bodies of all deceased hostages.
All bodies had been returned except that of police officer Ran Gvili. The Israeli army said on Sunday that it had launched a “targeted operation” in northern Gaza to retrieve his remains.
Mr Netanyahu's office said that once the operation was complete, Israel would partially open the Rafah crossing. No timeline was given for how long the search might take.
“As part of President Trump's 20-point plan, Israel has agreed to a limited reopening of the Rafah crossing for pedestrian passage only, subject to a full Israeli inspection mechanism,” the Prime Minister's office said.
On Thursday, Ali Shaath, head of a transitional Palestinian committee appointed to temporarily administer Gaza under the US plan, said the Rafah crossing would open this week. It is effectively the only route in or out of Gaza for nearly all of the more than two million people who live there. The Gaza side of the crossing has been under Israeli army control since May 2024.
During a security Cabinet meeting on Sunday evening, far-right Israeli ministers reportedly criticised the decision to open the crossing. “We did great things like kill tens of thousands of terrorists, but we still haven’t completely eliminated Hamas,” National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir was quoted as saying by the Walla news site.
This month, Washington announced that Mr Trump's Gaza peace plan had moved into its second phase, under which Israel is expected to further withdraw troops from Gaza and Hamas is to yield control of the administration of the territory.
However, despite a truce being in place, Israel has continued to carry out attacks in the enclave. Israeli fire killed three Palestinians in two separate incidents in the Gaza Strip on Sunday, while an Israeli drone wounded four others in Gaza city, the territory's Health Ministry said.
