The Palestinian embassy said on Saturday that the Rafah crossing on the border between Gaza and Egypt will reopen for people coming back to Gaza on Monday, The Associated Press reported. However, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office later said on X the crossing will not open “until further notice.”
Rafah’s border crossing has been shuttered since May 2024, when Israel took control of the Gaza side.
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This comes as the two sides continue to navigate a fragile ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war. More than 68,000 Palestinians were killed in Israel’s offensive, the Gaza Health Ministry said. It started after Hamas attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking 251 hostage.
During the war, much of Gaza’s population was displaced, with some having to move multiple times. United Nations experts say as much as 92% of the enclave’s housing units are destroyed, and the World Health Organization stated only 13 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals are still operational. Because of Israel restricting or halting aid altogether, organizations and experts declared a famine in Gaza City.
Another hostage body identified
As part of the ceasefire deal, Hamas was supposed to return the bodies of 28 slain hostages by midday this past Monday. So far, they have given back 12, one of whom was identified by Israel as Eliyahu Margalit on Saturday. Also on Saturday, Hamas transferred “two coffins of deceased hostages” to Israeli custody, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said.
“Hamas is required to fulfill its part of the agreement and make the necessary efforts to return all the hostages to their families and to a dignified burial,” the IDF said in a statement.
Netanyahu said Saturday that the opening of the Rafah border crossing “will be under consideration in accordance with the manner in which Hamas implements its part in return of the deceased hostages.”
Returning the hostages’ remains “may take some time,” though, Hamas previously said. Some bodies are buried in tunnels wrecked in Israeli strikes, while others are “under the rubble of buildings bombed and demolished,” Hamas was quoted by NBC News as saying.
Gaza Ministry of Health officials said bodies of 15 Palestinians were released by Israel on Saturday. The International Committee of the Red Cross took them to Nasser Hospital, according to Al-Jazeera, making the total number of bodies returned by Israel 135. Many of them, Gaza’s Ministry of Health said, show signs of torture.
Hamas says Israel violated ceasefire
Israel, which still controls half of Gaza, violated the ceasefire multiple times, killing 38 Palestinians, Hamas said. On Friday night, Gaza’s civil defense said 11 people from the same family were killed when an Israeli tank shell hit a bus they were in.
The Israel Defense Forces said it identified a “suspicious vehicle” crossing a yellow demarcation line, so it fired “warning shots.” The vehicle, the IDF alleged, approached troops in a way that caused an “imminent threat.”
The yellow line is not physically marked, the BBC noted, but Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said Friday the army will put up signs to indicate where it is.
