The Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt reopens after almost two years closed, a key access for the entry of aid to the Strip

He only access to the Strip that does not pass through Israeli territory It has been closed for most of the war, since May 7, 2024, almost completely blocking humanitarian aid access through this step,

Its reopening was one of the pending requirements, along with the delivery of all the hostages, of the first phase of ceasefire promoted by the Trump Administration in October to end the war between Israel and Hamas. A fragile truce after the Israeli Army killed 32 Gazans on Saturday.

The crossing, located in what was once a city called Rafah of a quarter of a million inhabitants that Israel reduced to ashes and completely depopulated, is the only route in or out for almost all of Gaza’s more than 2 million residents.

This Monday morning, a first group of Palestinians crossed from Egypt into Gaza through the crossing after the reopening of this vital crossing. As broadcast by Egyptian television Al Qahera News live, the Palestinians arrived at the international crossing area around 7:30 local time.

The images showed mainly women and children getting out of minibuses, surrounded by members of the Egyptian Red Crescent, some of them helping older women with wheelchairs.

Only 200 people a day

Egyptian security sources reported this week that The pass will have the capacity to process about 200 people a day: 150 who will leave the enclave compared to 50 who will access the Palestinian territory.

In total, according to sources, there are about 50 people scheduled to enter Gaza this Monday.

According to them, only residents “previously approved” by Egypt and Israel will be able to enter the Strip, and then be “transported by bus to an Israeli checkpoint for identity checks.”

Will those be Israeli military authorities ultimately decide whether to let Palestinians enter their territory.

Likewise, he crossed from Gaza to Egypt on first group of patients and companionsafter the crossing reopened yesterday as a “pilot phase.”

Al Qahera News iHe also indicated that hospitals in the northern Sinai region – where Rafah is located – are “on alert to receive the sick and wounded who will arrive from Gaza.”

In fact, more than sixty ambulances were waiting at the gate of the crossing to transport the injured to the different Egyptian hospitals in the north of the Sinai Peninsula, a process that “begins by receiving the injured at a post at the crossing where they are diagnosed by an Egyptian medical team before deciding to transfer them to a hospital,” according to the channel.