The Rafah crossing is Gaza’s lifeline to the world. Here’s why

CAIRO (AP) — Before the war, the Rafah border crossing was Gaza’s only gateway to the outside world not controlled by Israel. It was shuttered when Israeli troops seized it in May 2024.

On Monday, the crossing with Egypt reopened in a long-awaited step of the ceasefire deal in the two-year Israel-Hamas war. And though the reopening was mostly symbolic — only small numbers of people are allowed to cross initially — it provides a glimmer of hope for Palestinians seeking to leave the war-ravaged strip and those wishing to return home.

What comes next

The Rafah crossing played a key role for the people of Gaza before the war, handling the movement of people and some types of cargo. But after Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, sparking the war, Egypt tightened its restrictions.

The reopening is expected to make it easier for Palestinians from Gaza to seek medical treatment, travel internationally or visit family. The initial numbers allowed to cross, however, are limited to only 50 medical evacuees from Gaza, along with two people escorting them, while 50 Palestinians who fled Gaza during the war can return, according to Israeli and Egyptian officials.

That falls far short of the roughly 20,000 sick and wounded people Gaza’s Health Ministry says need treatment abroad and represents only a fraction of the more than 30,000 Palestinians registered in Cairo to return home, according to an embassy official, speaking on condition of anonymity because talks are ongoing.

Israeli officials have given no indication when a full reopening could happen. They’ve said crossing restrictions are expected to ease over time if the reopening is successful.

“We hope this will close off Israel’s pretexts and open the crossing,” said Abdel-Rahman Radwan, a Gaza City resident whose mother is a cancer patient and requires treatment outside Gaza.

Gaza’s mounting needs

With much of Gaza turned to rubble, the United Nations has said the Palestinian territory’s population of over 2 million people needs a massive influx of fuel, food, medicine and tents.

How quickly the crossing can scale up operations to allow the passage of goods is likely to have a major bearing on Gaza’s reconstruction.

Also among the unknowns is the expected arrival of the new Palestinian committee of administrators appointed to govern day-to-day affairs in Gaza under the international “Board of Peace” proposed by U.S. President Donald Trump. The committee remains in Cairo, without Israeli authorization to enter.

Palestinians wanting to leave Gaza will have to get Israeli and Egyptian security approval. Egypt has been opposed to Palestinian refugees permanently resettling in that country.

Questions about the future

The Gaza side of the Rafah crossing was heavily damaged during the war.

With the current ceasefire deal calling for Hamas to have no role in running Gaza, it’s unclear who will operate the territory’s side of the Rafah crossing once the war ends. Currently, an EU mission is running the crossing with assistance from plainclothes Palestinian security officers — an arrangement similar to when Rafah reopened limitedly during a brief ceasefire at the start of 2025.

Israel has said it will run security checks on Palestinians, once they’re inside the zone under the Israeli military’s control.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week said there would be no reconstruction in Gaza without demilitarization, a stance that could make Israel’s control over the Rafah crossing a key point of leverage. U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and Middle East adviser Jared Kushner said last month that postwar construction would first focus on building “workforce housing” in Rafah, the enclave’s southernmost city, near the crossing.

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Associated Press reporters Samy Magdy in Cairo, Farnoush Amiri at the United Nations and Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv, Israel, contributed to this report.

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Find more of AP’s coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war