It was in the second week of October upon the signing of the ceasefire agreement on the Israeli genocidal war on Gaza that the Israeli occupation authorities were supposed to open the Rafah Crossing which connects Gaza with Egypt.
However, Tel Aviv has kept procrastinating in violation of the terms of the agreement that was reached after a proposal of US President Donald Trump.
But at midnight of 29 January, the crossing is slated to start to operate to allow for the limited exit and entry of Palestinians from and into the Israeli-besieged Gaza Strip. “We are waiting to start operations, and we are hopeful that this time Israel will honour its commitments,” said an Egyptian official on Tuesday morning.
The official spoke after Israel announced the recovery of the body of the last Israeli hostage who died while in Gaza after having been taken by Hamas during the 7 October 2023 Operation Al-Aqsa Flood.
Israel had previously promised on several occasions, the last of which was in December, to allow the opening of the crossing, which is the only exit/entry point that Palestinians in Gaza have with Egypt aside from the other five crossings that are connected to Israel.
The delay, Egyptian sources explained in recent weeks, was not just about the recovery of the last Israeli hostage’s body, hard to find due to the massive destruction that the Israeli war brought to Gaza.
It was more about the desire of Israel to operate the Rafah Crossing as a strict exit point for Palestinians who wish to leave Gaza. Egypt, for its part, has insisted that it will only operate its side of the crossing if it allows for the entry of Palestinians who wish to go back to Gaza as well.
“For Israel, the Rafah Crossing was perceived as a [possible path] to start a planned forced displacement of Palestinians from their land,” said Wael Rabaei, a senior military expert.
“Egypt insisted that the crossing cannot be opened on a one-side basis,” he added.
On Monday, the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that Israel had decided to allow the limited operation of the Rafah Crossing in both directions. Egyptian sources attribute this decision to pressure from the US and cooperation from the European Union, which will join with both the Egyptian and Israeli authorities to operate the Rafah Crossing in both directions.
Speaking on Tuesday morning, two sources agreed that the qualification of “limited operation” includes both the opening hours and the number of people that will be allowed to move through the crossing. Speaking on condition of anonymity, one of the sources explained that Cairo was working to set the criteria for people who would be allowed to go in and out of Gaza.
They both explained that the number one criterion, for those exiting Gaza, are individuals with health issues who need to get medical treatment either in Egypt or outside Egypt. According to an informed medical source, this category includes thousands of people, some of whom are way overdue for medical interventions.
However, they said that it will be impossible to process all the numbers on the very long waiting list in anything short of a few weeks. They also agreed that top priorities will be decided first.
“If you are asking whether there are enough guarantees to allow for all those who need to exit to do so, I will tell you that I cannot trust the Israeli intentions,” said the first official. He added that despite such concerns, Egypt will continue to work with Israel and the US to prolong the opening of the crossing “once it happens”.
Meanwhile, the sources said that the number one category among those who would be allowed to enter Gaza are Palestinian citizens who are eligible for family unification.
“We are talking about people with an elderly parent in Gaza, for example,” the same official said. They added that it might be possible to allow medical workers from Egypt to enter Gaza for specific durations to help with medical operations in Gaza where the health system has all but collapsed.
He stressed that any possible entry of Egyptian medical personnel can only be allowed with strict security arrangements for safety purposes.
With the Monday retrieval of the remains of the last Israeli body from Gaza, Israel secured the goal of reclaiming all the hostages. However, the Israeli military continues to conduct military strikes against Gaza, many of which cause several deaths a day among Palestinian civilians.
In a strike conducted on Tuesday morning, Israel killed four Palestinians, for example.
None of the sources who spoke to Al-Ahram Weekly had any definite assessment of the numbers that would be allowed to pass on a daily basis from or into Gaza. They both agreed, however, that it might differ from one day to the next.
The sources also agreed that it is important for Egypt to count the numbers coming out of Gaza to avoid giving Israel a chance to prompt as many Palestinians as possible to leave without the chance to reclaim their homes.
They added that the operation of the Rafah Crossing comes at the same time as a push on the side of Egypt to give a new lease of life to an otherwise very fragile ceasefire, with both saying that if things do not move forward, the ceasefire could collapse.
The sources agreed that the limited operation of the Rafah Crossing is coming in parallel to the reconstruction work that should be initiated on the Palestinian side of the crossing to allow for better shelters for people who have been forced to live in inadequate tents during winter storms, with many children dying as a result.
The official, however, cautioned that the opening of the Rafah Crossing is, at least for now, only for individuals. “We are hoping to increase the volume of humanitarian aid into Gaza to compensate for an acute deficit of food, medicine, winter clothes and so on, but we will see how things go in the coming days,” he said.
Moreover, he said that the opening of the crossing does not immediately mean that the recently composed Gaza Governing Committee will be allowed to move in and out of Gaza freely.
“Again, this is something we are still working on,” he said.
The Rafah Crossing has been closed for about two years after the Israeli army took control of the Palestinian side in May 2024. None of several official and non-official informed sources who spoke to the Weekly said that Israel had agreed to partially or fully exit the Palestinian side of the crossing.
But they agreed that the operation of the Palestinian side would be conducted by a mission of the European Union in coordination with the Israeli military.
None of the sources had an answer to the question of whether this opening would be a prelude to the composition and deployment of the UN Security Council-sanctioned International Stabilisation Force (ISF) for Gaza.
“There is still no final agreement on the composition or the details of the mandate of the ISF,” said one of the sources.
“There is nothing that is straightforward on the management of Gaza, and we could still be seeing breakthroughs and setbacks,” the official said. “We continue to consult on a daily basis with all our partners on the matter,” he added.
On Tuesday, Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty was in Jordan for consultations on the next step for Gaza under the Board of Peace that Trump announced last week on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos.
According to the Egyptian official, the announcement of the board, of which both Egypt and Jordan, among other Arab states, are members, should allow for some movement forward.
But he was not willing to go along with a statement shared by US Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff, who forecast an end to warfare in Gaza.
On his account on X, Witkoff wrote that the recovery of the remains of the last Israeli hostage marked “a historic day”.
“This closes a painful chapter for many and paves the way for a new future that can be defined by peace, not war, and prosperity, not destruction,” he said.
“It’s a new day in the Middle East, and President Trump, myself, and the entire team are committed to sustained peace and prosperity for all in the region,” Witkoff wrote.
“Well, we hope it will be, but we will see first what happens with the operation of the Rafah Crossing and the entry of humanitarian aid,” the Egyptian official said.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 29 January, 2026 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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