Fifty Palestinians returning to Gaza have passed through the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing after it was reopened by Israel as part of a US-backed ceasefire.
After being cleared at the Egyptian gate at 10am on Monday, the group entered through the Palestinian gate just after 4pm, sources at the border told The National.
The crossing reopened on Sunday for what Israel called an “initial pilot phase”, which had support from Egypt and the EU.
Palestinians who left Gaza during the two-year war between Israel and Hamas, as well as those seeking to leave the territory for medical treatment, are now allowed to pass through the crossing after screening and security checks from both sides.
“The situation was actually quite smooth with regards to the security clearances and general procedures on the Egyptian side,” an aid officer stationed at the border told The National on Monday. “This is because the group of Palestinians who arrived were previously cleared by their embassy earlier and a list of their names was sent to the crossing ahead of their arrival.”
The Rafah crossing had been largely closed since May 2024 when Israeli forces seized the Palestinian side of the crossing. Its reopening marks the implementation of the first stage of the US-brokered ceasefire plan announced in October.
EU foreign affairs minister Kaja Kallas said the reopening of the crossing “marks a concrete and positive step in the peace plan”.
“The EU’s civilian mission is on the ground to monitor crossing operations and support Palestinian border guards,” she said in a post on X. “Practical steps like this help move the truce plan forward and must continue. At the same time, Gaza remains in urgent need of aid. Its reconstruction will depend on Hamas' demilitarisation.”
Movement remains highly restricted, however, with a limited number of people permitted to cross in both directions each day. Humanitarian aid and goods are barred. The crossing was meant to open after the ceasefire began but it was delayed by Israel until the last of its hostages returned last Monday.
The Palestinian embassy in Cairo began receiving applications in October from Gazans seeking to return. They are allowed to take only two bags of clothing each, excluding electrical or metal devices, it said, while cigarettes and medicines must remain within personal limits.
Another aid officer at Rafah said the first group “were cleared for entry at about 10 this morning. There is another gate past the main one that people see on television. They went through there and are now waiting for clearance to enter the Palestinian gate, where they will go through the Israeli security procedures which we are not familiar with.”
There were between 30 and 40 ambulances waiting to receive the first wave of wounded Gazans, “who are expected to be received at Egyptian hospitals”, said the first aid officer, who works with a medical NGO at Rafah.
The officer said that five patients would be leaving the enclave on Monday with more expected to depart daily for treatment in Egypt.
“They told us yesterday to prepare and to take only one bag each,” said Randa Abu Mustafa, whose son Ibrahim needs treatment to avoid losing vision in his remaining eye after being injured early in the war.
“Every attempt to treat him here failed,” she told The National. “There was constant danger.”
According to a border official, applicants to return to Gaza are informed once they have been cleared and are told to pack the night before. They are then put on a bus and taken directly to the border crossing where their names are checked, he told The National.
They are received by the Egyptian Red Crescent at the border and taken for passport procedures.
Political analyst Mustafa Ibrahim said the inspection rooms, metal turnstiles, barbed wire, strict baggage limits and layered security checks at Rafah resemble detention facilities more than a civilian border crossing.
“The images remind us of prisons and restraints,” Mr Ibrahim told The National. “They reinforce the reality of occupation and control over everything Palestinian.”
He said that the crossing has become a tool of political leverage, used in Israel’s internal political struggles and electoral bargaining, rather than a humanitarian passage.
“Opening it in this humiliating way does not signal freedom of movement, but the continuation of control,” he said.
In Egypt, Health Minister Khaled Abdel Ghaffar chaired a meeting of an interministerial committee on Monday to review preparations for receiving patients from Gaza and the return of those who had been treated, a ministry spokesman said.
He said the plan involved about 150 hospitals across the country and the capacity to expand as required. It also provides for 250 to 300 fully equipped ambulances, supported by around 12,000 doctors in critical specialities and 18,000 nurses, alongside 30 rapid-response teams.
A central control room at the ministry will co-ordinate 24-hour emergency operations with 27 governorate offices and more than 90 medical points and trauma hospitals.
About 20,000 sick and wounded Palestinians are waiting for permission to leave Gaza for medical treatment.
In Israel, reaction to the reopening of the crossing has been mixed. Ariel Kahana, writing in the pro-government outlet Israel Hayom, downplayed criticism that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had caved to international pressure.
He argued that the “extremely limited” operations at Rafah were a “tremendous” success for Israel. “As a result of Netanyahu's insistence on both capturing the Philadelphi Corridor and the city of Rafah, and refusing under any circumstances to withdraw from them, the smuggling bonanza that once defined the area has come to an end,” Kahana wrote.
The Philadelphi Corridor is the Israeli term for a narrow strip of land along the Gaza-Egypt border, known in Arab countries as Saladin Corridor. Mr Netanyahu’s insistence on retaining Israeli troops there was a frequent obstacle to negotiations between Israel and Hamas during the Gaza war.
Thomas Helm contributed to this report from Jerusalem
