A limited number of Palestinians were able to travel between Gaza and Egypt on Sunday afterwards Rafah crossing in Gaza reopened after a two-day shutdown, Egyptian state media reported. The vital border crossing opened last week for the first time since 2024, which is one of the main conditions for a US-backed cease-fire.

The crossing was closed Friday and Saturday due to confusion over the reopening, AP reported.

Egypt’s Al Qahera television station reported that Palestinians began crossing in both directions around noon on Sunday. Israel did not immediately confirm.

Egyptian state media also reported on Sunday that the country is preparing to receive another group of Palestinians who are wounded or sick and seeking treatment in Egyptian hospitals.

Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to travel to Washington this week, although the main topic of discussion will be Iran, his office said.

In the first four days since the crossing opened, only 36 Palestinians in need of medical care were allowed to enter Egypt, plus 62 companions, according to the United Nations, after Israel returned the body of the last hostage held in Gaza, and several US officials visited Israel to press for the opening.

Palestinian officials say nearly 20,000 people in Gaza want to leave for medical care unavailable in the war-torn territory. Those who managed to cross described delays and allegations of mistreatment by Israeli forces and other groups involved in the crossing, including the Israeli-backed Palestinian militant group Abu Shabab.

A group of Palestinian patients and wounded gathered Sunday morning in the courtyard of the Red Crescent Hospital in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis before heading to the Rafah crossing with Egypt for treatment abroad, family members told The Associated Press.

Amjad Abu Jedian, who was injured in the war, was supposed to leave Gaza for treatment on the first day the crossing reopened, but only five patients were allowed to travel that day, said his mother, Raja Abu Jedian. Abu Jedian was shot by an Israeli sniper while building traditional bathrooms in the central Bureij refugee camp in July 2024, she said.

His family received a call from the World Health Organization on Saturday informing them that he was included in the group traveling on Sunday, she said.

“We want them to take care of the patients (during their evacuation),” she said. “We want the Israeli army not to burden them.”

Israel’s defense branch, which oversees the operation of the crossing, did not immediately confirm the opening.

A group of Palestinians also arrived on the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing on Sunday morning to return to the Gaza Strip, Egypt’s state-run Al-Qahera News satellite television reported.

Palestinians who returned to Gaza in the first few days of the crossing’s operation described hours of delays and invasive searches by Israeli authorities and Abu Shabab. The European Union mission and Palestinian officials manage the border crossing, and Israel has its own screening facility a little further away.

The Rafah border crossing reopened on February 2 as a key step in the current ceasefire agreement, which has halted more than two years of war between Israel and Hamas. However, traffic was limited. Egyptian state media and an Israeli official confirmed at the time that the reopening was largely symbolic, as not many people would be allowed to travel in either direction and no goods could enter.

Restrictions negotiated by Israeli, Egyptian, Palestinian and international officials meant that only 50 people would be allowed to return to Gaza each day, and 50 medical patients – along with two companions for each – would be allowed to leave, but far fewer people have crossed in either direction so far.

An essential lifeline for Palestinians in Gaza, the Rafah crossing was the only crossing in the Palestinian territory that was not controlled by Israel before the war. Israel captured the Palestinian side of the Rafah in May 2024, although traffic through the crossing was severely restricted even before that.