Israel currently occupies the Palestinian side of the crossing, choking Gaza of a vital humanitarian entry point.
Israel is preparing to reopen the Rafah crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt in both directions after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu returns from a visit to the United States, according to Israeli media reports.
Israel’s Kan 11 news reported on Wednesday that the expected decision comes as a result of pressure from US President Donald Trump.
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For Palestinians in Gaza, the Rafah crossing had long been the only connection to the outside world.
That was until May 2024, when Israeli forces occupied the Palestinian side of the crossing, destroying its buildings, preventing travel and causing a severe humanitarian crisis, especially for patients.
It marked the first time in 20 years that Israeli forces directly controlled the border crossing as they deployed soldiers in a military buffer zone all across the Philadelphi Corridor, where they remain today.
The first phase of Trump’s 20-point plan – imposed by the US administration in October – to end Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza had called for Israeli authorities to let humanitarian aid into the territory and open “the Rafah crossing in both directions”.
Israel, however, has continued to restrict the entry of aid, while a military unit called Israel’s Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) announced in December that the “Rafah Crossing will open in the coming days exclusively for the exit of residents from the Gaza Strip to Egypt”.
The announcement caused concern among mediators, with the foreign ministers of Egypt, Indonesia, Jordan, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkiye and the United Arab Emirates issuing a joint statement that expressed “deep concern” and expressed their “complete rejection of any attempts to displace the Palestinian people from their land”.
Israel’s Kan news reported that discussions about reopening the crossing in both directions had been held before Netanyahu met with Trump in the US, but the move was postponed.
It added that an unnamed US source believed that the announcement about the opening of the crossing would take place in the coming days.
Netanyahu has reached the end of his latest trip to the US, with Trump hailing him as a “hero” and saying Israel – and by extension its prime minister – had “lived up to the plan 100 percent” in reference to the US president’s peace plan.
However, reports emerged last week that suggested US officials are growing frustrated over Netanyahu’s apparent “slow walking” of the 20-point ceasefire plan, suspecting that the Israeli prime minister might be hoping to keep the door open to resuming hostilities against the Palestinian group Hamas at a time of his choosing.
