by Yonah Jeremy Bob
Despite the reopening of Rafah, Israel is still limiting the entry of foreign and Israeli journalists and insisting on supervising their visits.
 |
Israel fully reopened the Rafah Border Crossing between Gaza and Egypt on Monday for people on foot, a day after rolling out a limited pilot-day opening to address unforeseen logistical issues.
Collectively, the Sunday-Monday rollout now allows Palestinians to leave the enclave and to let back in certain Gazans who fled during the war in the enclave.
While Sunday's opening was for a very small number of Palestinians, mostly to help the three-fold Israeli, EUBAM, and Palestinian officials involved to figure out some of the inevitable holes in the process on the ground from such a large and complex undertaking.
Monday's opening is expected to allow the maximum number of people to pass through the crossing under the Trump ceasefire deal.
Even this full opening is limited in some respects, with Israel requiring security checks for Palestinians entering and exiting Jerusalem.
Cairo is also expected to impose unannounced caps on the number of travelers, though the number of daily travelers allowed was expected to be substantial.
IDF outlines response to Rafah crossing opening
Last week, in response to the opening of the Rafah Crossing, the IDF outlined a complex border-check arrangement.
The European EUBAM organization will handle the main border checks for the Rafah Crossing going in and out of Gaza, reportedly with some Palestinian involvement.
Next, the IDF will do a second round of physical checks of all those entering Gaza after the EUBAM check.
Exiting Gaza for Egypt, the IDF will not undertake any physical checks, but will have video cameras taking pictures of the faces of all those exiting.
In addition, IDF sources recommended that despite all of the authorities being passed on to the Palestinian technocratic committee, EUBAM, and the ISF, the IDF avoid a complete withdrawal from the Philadelphi Corridor, near the Rafah Crossing.
Israel cut off Gaza in the early weeks of October 2023 after Hamas's invasion of Israel's South, but then started to open certain crossings to facilitate humanitarian aid and pressed Egypt to do so with Rafah.
Despite Israeli and US requests, Egypt closed the Rafah Crossing near the start of the war, with Israel accusing Egypt of doing so to pressure Jerusalem into being the sole source of humanitarian aid for Gaza and to protest the IDF's counter-attack on Hamas.
Later, in May 2024, Israel seized the border crossing.
From May 2024 until Trump's final October 2025 ceasefire, Jerusalem and Cairo haggled over potentially reopening the crossing, with neither side agreeing to the other's terms, though the crossing opened on a limited basis during the January 2025-March 2025 temporary ceasefire.
For example, Egypt wanted the Palestinian Authority involved in the crossing, which Israel objected to at the time, but is now allowing on a limited basis.
Palestinian officials say about 100,000 Palestinians have fled Gaza since the war began, most of them during the first nine months. Some were sponsored by aid groups, while others paid bribes to parties in Egypt to secure permission to leave.
The closure of Rafah cut off an important route for wounded and sick Palestinians to seek medical care outside Gaza.
Israel allowed a few thousand people to seek medical treatment in third countries via its own border over the past year, though thousands more are in need of care abroad, according to the United Nations.
Despite the reopening of Rafah, Israel is still limiting the entry of foreign and Israeli journalists and insisting on supervising their visits.
Gaza's about two million Palestinians mostly live in makeshift tents and damaged homes, surrounded by the ruins of their destroyed cities.
Israel's Supreme Court is considering a petition by the Foreign Press Association that demands foreign journalists be allowed to enter Gaza from Israel in unlimited numbers and without supervision.
Government lawyers have said that letting journalists into Gaza could pose risks to Israeli soldiers, while also highlighting potential risks to reporters, though they have been more circumspect about these dangers at the current time, given the October 2025 ceasefire.
Reuters contributed to this story.
Yonah Jeremy Bob
Source: https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/article-885316
No comments:
Post a Comment