Israel has agreed to reopen the Gaza Strip’s key Rafah border crossing with Egypt only after completing an operation to retrieve the body of the last remaining Israeli hostage in the territory.
The Rafah crossing has been mostly closed since May 2024, when Israeli forces seized the Palestinian side. It was meant to have reopened during the first stage of the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, which began in October. However, the Israeli government has made that conditional on Hamas making every effort to return the body of police officer Master Sgt. Ran Gvili.
On Sunday, Israel’s military said it had begun a new search for his remains in northern Gaza. Israeli media quoted military officials as saying the operation was taking place at a cemetery in Gaza City and could last several days.
Sunday night, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office announced that Israel had “agreed to a limited reopening of the Rafah crossing for pedestrian passage only, subject to a full Israeli inspection mechanism.” The Israeli military was “currently conducting a focused operation to exhaust all of the intelligence that has been gathered in the effort to locate and return” Gvili’s remains. “Upon completion of this operation, and in accordance with what has been agreed upon with the US, Israel will open the Rafah crossing,” the statement added.
Israel plans to establish a full Israeli monitoring mechanism at the crossing, including oversight of entry and exit lists, and an additional screening point for all people entering Gaza located in an area around the Yellow Line, which demarcates the territory still controlled by Israeli forces under the ceasefire deal.
Hamas’s military wing, the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, said Sunday it had “provided mediators with all the details and information in our possession regarding the location” of Gvili’s body. Israeli forces were “searching one of the sites,” it added.
Gvili’s family reiterated their strong opposition to the reopening of the Rafah crossing before his body had been returned to Israel for burial. “First and foremost, Ran must be brought home,” they said. The 24-year-old was killed in Kibbutz Alumim during the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and his body was taken back to Gaza as a hostage.
A dispute emerged with Egypt, which said the crossing would only be opened if movement was allowed in both directions, enabling the return of tens of thousands of Palestinians who fled Gaza during the war. On Thursday, the head of the new technocratic Palestinian government in Gaza said the Rafah crossing would open “in both directions” this week.
US special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner led a delegation Saturday which met Israel’s prime minister for discussions focused on implementing phase two of the Gaza peace plan. Under phase one, Hamas and Israel agreed to a ceasefire, an exchange of all living and dead Israeli hostages for Palestinians detained in Israeli jails, a partial Israeli withdrawal, and increased humanitarian aid. Phase two involves a new Palestinian government taking over public services, plus reconstruction and full demilitarization of the territory.
The war was triggered by the Oct. 7, 2023 attack, when about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others taken to Gaza as hostages. Israel responded by launching a military campaign in Gaza, during which more than 71,650 people have been killed, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.
