Israel’s Security Cabinet is due to meet today, Sunday, to discuss reopening the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt, as Israel plans an additional screening point called “Rafah 2” that would tighten controls on Palestinians’ movement, Israeli and Palestinian sources said.
Israel’s public broadcaster said Friday that the new checkpoint would be set up on the Palestinian side to audit outbound passenger lists sent by the European Union Border Assistance Mission, using facial imaging and ID checks without a direct on-the-ground presence inside the crossing. It said the checkpoint would be overseen by Israel’s Shin Bet security service, while the official crossing is run by the EU mission.
A Palestinian source close to the newly formed technocratic committee to manage Gaza said the first phase of operating the crossing would allow travel for humanitarian cases, including wounded people, patients, and students who have obtained study visas, while returns to Gaza would be allowed after obtaining Israeli security approvals.
More than 60,000 Palestinians from Gaza who are abroad have already registered at the Palestinian Embassy in Cairo in the hope of returning in the coming weeks, the source said.
The Israeli occupation is adding new hurdles to inspection procedures, particularly for those returning to the Strip, and introducing mechanisms not previously in place, the source said. “Ultimately, the decision rests with the United States. Even if the occupation implements the initial phase of operating the crossing, it will later be modified under American pressure,” the source added.
The source told Al Manassa that Israel is obstructing the operation of the Rafah crossing, while the United States continues pressing the occupation government to advance phase two of the Gaza ceasefire agreement.
One major provision still unfulfilled from the first phase of the ceasefire Trump mediated in October, the source noted, is reopening Gaza’s main gateway to the outside world to allow Palestinians to enter and exit.
The source, who asked that their name not be published, said Nikolay Mladenov, the senior representative for Gaza on the board of peace, had formally informed mediators in Egypt that Rafah would open during the current week.
Egypt, the source said, then informed the Gaza technocratic management committee. Committee head, Ali Shaath, said in a speech at the Davos conference on Thursday that the crossing would open in both directions in the coming days.
The source said the Israeli military plans to set up caravans near the Rafah land crossing on the Palestinian side, and to route Palestinians along a 13 kilometer-long road it has paved parallel to the Egyptian border, starting from the Karm Abu Salem crossing southeast of Rafah and extending to Al-Bahr Street in the west. The route would allow Gazans to return to, or leave, the areas where they are located in the western part of the Strip.
The source said the United States is insisting on the success of the technocratic committee’s work in Gaza, and its members are expected to enter the Strip by the end of the current week to take up their duties and begin work on improving conditions for residents and providing basic services.
The Israeli military still controls more than 50% of Gaza’s territory, including the north, east, and south, and imposes tight security control that prevents residents from returning to their homes, the source said.
Earlier this month, Washington announced the launch of the second phase of the peace plan signed between Israel and Hamas, without discussing any arrangements related to the Rafah border crossing, according to the Arabic text.
Last month, Israel said it would open the Rafah land crossing in one direction for residents to leave, and said the decision came in coordination with Egyptian authorities, which Cairo denied at the time.
Egypt’s State Information Service quoted an unnamed Egyptian official source as saying Egypt had not coordinated with Israel on that matter. The source said then that if there were an agreement to open the crossing with Gaza, movement would be in both directions, entry and exit, in line with what was described as US President Donald Trump’s peace plan, which included a ceasefire in Gaza.
