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They tread Rafah The border crossing with Egypt reopened to limited traffic on Monday, a key step in the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, but a largely symbolic development on the ground as few people will be able to travel in either direction and no goods will pass through.
However, in the first few hours after the opening, no one was seen entering or leaving Gaza. An Egyptian official said 50 Palestinians were expected to cross in each direction on the first day of the Rafah operation. About 20,000 Palestinian children and adults in need of medical assistance hope to leave the devastated site Gauze across the border, according to Gaza health officials.
Thousands of other Palestinians outside the territory hope to enter and return home.
Egyptian state media and an Israeli security official also confirmed the reopening. The officials spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
Before the conflict, Rafah was the main crossing point for people going in and out of Gaza. It shares a handful of other crossings in that territory with Israel. Under the terms of the ceasefire, which took effect in October, the Israeli army controls the area between the Rafah crossing and the zone where most Palestinians live.
Violence continued across the coastal enclave on Monday, and hospital officials in Gaza said an Israeli navy ship fired on a tent camp, killing a three-year-old Palestinian boy. The Israeli military said it was investigating the incident.
Egypt to receive the wounded
On Monday, Rajaa Abu Mustafa stood in front of a hospital in Gaza where her 17-year-old son Mohamed was waiting for evacuation. He was blinded by a gunshot to the eye last year while joining desperate Palestinians seeking food from aid trucks east of the town of Khan Younis.
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“We were waiting for the crossing to open,” she said. “He is now open and the health ministry called and told us we will be traveling to Egypt for (his) treatment.”
About 150 hospitals across Egypt are ready to receive Palestinian patients evacuated from Gaza via the Rafah, authorities said. Also, the Egyptian Red Crescent said it had prepared “safe spaces” on the Egyptian side of the crossing to support those evacuated from the Gaza Strip.
Since the beginning of the conflict, Israel has banned patients from being sent to hospitals in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem – a move that cut off what was previously the main outlet for Palestinians needing medical treatment unavailable in Gaza.
Israel said that, and Egypt will check people for exit and entry through the Rafah crossing, which will be monitored by European Union border patrol agents with a small Palestinian presence. Passenger numbers are expected to increase over time if the system is successful.
Fearing that Israel could use the crossing to push Palestinians out of the enclave, Egypt has repeatedly said it must be open for them to enter and leave Gaza. Historically, Israel and Egypt have vetted Palestinians who applied to cross.
Israeli fire killed a Palestinian child
A three-year-old Palestinian boy was killed on Monday when the Israeli navy hit tents housing displaced people on the shores of the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, Palestinian hospital authorities said.
According to Nasser Hospital, which received the body, the attack took place in Muwasi, an area of a tent camp on the coast of the Gaza Strip. The boy was the last of the Palestinians in Gaza since the Gaza ceasefire in October.
More than 520 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire since the ceasefire took effect on October 10, according to Gaza’s health ministry. The cease-fire casualties, which UNICEF said included more than 100 children, were among more than 71,800 Palestinians killed since the start of the Israeli offensive, according to the ministry, which did not say how many were combatants or civilians.
The ministry, which is part of the Hamas-led Gaza government, keeps detailed casualty records that UN agencies and independent experts consider generally reliable.
Israeli troops seized the Rafah crossing in May 2024, calling it part of an effort to combat arms smuggling to the Hamas militant group. The crossing was briefly opened to evacuate medical patients during the ceasefire in early 2025.
Israel has resisted reopening the Rafah crossing, but the recovery of the remains of the last hostage in Gaza has opened the way forward.
The reopening is seen as a key step as the US-brokered ceasefire agreement moves into its second phase. Rafah is expected to step up operations over time if the ceasefire holds.
The truce halted more than two years of conflict between Israel and Hamas that began with a Hamas attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023. Its first phase called for the exchange of all hostages held in Gaza for hundreds of Palestinians held by Israel, an increase in much-needed humanitarian aid and a partial withdrawal of Israeli troops.
The second phase of the ceasefire agreement is more complicated. It calls for the establishment of a new Palestinian committee to govern Gaza, the deployment of international security forces, the disarmament of Hamas and steps to begin reconstruction.
© 2026 The Canadian Press
