Israel said Thursday that the date for the opening of the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt would be announced at a later stage and that it would only be open for the movement of people.
“The date for the opening of the Rafah crossing for the movement of people only will be announced at a later stage, once the Israeli side, together with the Egyptian side, completes the necessary preparations for the crossing’s opening,” said a statement from COGAT, the Israeli defence ministry body that oversees civil affairs in the Palestinian territories.
“It should be emphasised that humanitarian aid will not pass through the Rafah crossing. This was never agreed upon at any stage,” the statement said, adding that “aid continues to enter the Gaza Strip” through other crossings.
The Rafah crossing is a strategic gateway to the outside world for the Gaza Strip, and international organisations hope that the crossing point will enable a surge of aid to be delivered to the devastated territory.
Several aid organisations and UN agencies have told AFP that they have stored aid in warehouses on the Egyptian side, waiting to be able to bring it into Gaza.
When Rafah was still open, international aid often entered from Egypt and was transported by truck to the Kerem Shalom crossing between Israel and southern Gaza.
There, it was inspected by Israeli authorities before being collected by international organisations either at Kerem Shalom or Rafah and distributed in the Gaza Strip.
On October 9, two sources at the Egyptian Red Crescent confirmed that “153 aid trucks entered through the Rafah crossing’s bypass road, en route to the Kerem Shalom crossing, to be brought into the Gaza Strip”.
The EU’s top diplomat has said that the bloc would restart a civilian mission to monitor the Rafah crossing on Wednesday in support of the ceasefire agreement pushed by US President Donald Trump.
During a previous truce, Rafah briefly reopened in January 2025, but only to allow people wishing to leave the territory to pass through.
“Opening the Rafah crossing in both directions will be subject to the same mechanism implemented under the January 19, 2025 agreement,” reads point eight of US President Donald Trump’s 20-point peace plan.
The compound at Rafah crossing was heavily damaged during the war and was taken over by Israeli forces in May 2024.
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