Israel denies it agreed on allowing Palestinian Authority control over Rafah crossing

Ahram Online , Wednesday 22 Jan 2025

A statement issued by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office on Wednesday denied reports that Israel agreed to allow the Palestinian Authority (PA) to take control over the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt, Israeli media reported.

GAZA
Trucks carrying humanitarian aid come in from the Karem Abu Salem crossing and arrive in al-Shoka, east of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. AFP

 

"Israeli army is currently deployed at the crossing point and nobody passes through it without supervision and approval from the army and Shin Bet," the Times of Israel quoted the office's statement as saying.

Netanyahu’s office also claimed that “non-Hamas Gazans” provide technical management of the crossing with international oversight, and the PA provides the stamp on passports allowing Gazans to exit the strip.

However, it admitted that the current arrangement at the crossing is for the “first stage of the deal and will be reexamined later.”

Israel captured the Gaza side of the Rafah crossing in May 2024, forcing it to shut down.

Egypt, a key mediator in more than a year of negotiations that led to the ceasefire, has demanded that Palestinians control the Gaza side and insisted on Israeli withdrawal from it.

In September, Egyptian Minister of Foreign Affairs Badr Abdelatty reiterated Egypt’s unequivocal rejection of Israeli control over the Philadelphi corridor, also known as the Salah El-Din axis, describing it as unacceptable.

Abdelatty also reaffirmed Egypt’s long-standing rejection of Israel's control over the Rafah crossing. He emphasized that Egypt would never accept arrangements alternative to the Egyptian-Palestinian crossing between Gaza and Egypt.

"Egypt insists on operating the Rafah crossing from the other side under Palestinian supervision and demands a return to the situation as it was before 7 October,” he said.

 

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