Israel to reopen Gaza crossing after search for hostage’s body ends
EPAIsrael announced that it agreed to reopen the Gaza Strip’s important border gate with Egypt only after the operation to retrieve the body of the last remaining Israeli hostage in the area is completed.
The Rafah crossing has been largely closed since May 2024, when the Palestinian side was captured by Israeli forces. The gate was planned to be reopened in the first phase of the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, which started in October.
However, the Israeli government conditioned this on the condition that Hamas make every effort to return the body of the last hostage, police officer Sergeant Ran Gvili.
On Sunday, the Israeli army announced a new search for his remains in northern Gaza.
Although Israel seems to offer a period of time for the reopening of the pass in its latest announcement, it is not known how long the search for Gvili will last.
Israeli media quoted military officials as saying that the operation was carried out in a cemetery in Gaza City and could last several days.
On Thursday, the head of the new technocratic Palestinian government in Gaza said the Rafah gate would open “in both directions” this week.
This comes as the United States and other mediators continue to pressure both sides to take next steps to advance President Donald Trump’s peace plan.
On Sunday night, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office announced that Israel “has agreed to the limited reopening of the Rafah gate for pedestrian passage only, subject to Israel’s full inspection mechanism.”
The statement said the Israeli military is “currently conducting a focused operation to exhaust all intelligence gathered in the effort to locate and return Ran Gvili’s remains.”
The statement said, “After the completion of this operation, Israel will open the Rafah border gate in accordance with the agreement reached with the USA.”
Israel’s Haaretz newspaper quoted a source as saying there would be a “full Israeli monitoring mechanism” at the crossing, which would include monitoring of entry and exit lists.
The source added that Israel also plans to establish an additional screening point for all people entering Gaza in the area around the Yellow Line, which designates the area still controlled by Israeli forces under the ceasefire agreement.
Earlier Sunday, the Israeli military said soldiers “launched a targeted operation in the Yellow Line area of the northern Gaza Strip” to retrieve Gvili’s body.
Israeli military officials told local media that the operation acted on intelligence gathered over a long period of time; This indicated that Gvili’s remains may have been buried in the Shejaiya and Daraj Tuffah areas of Gaza City, east of the Yellow Line.
The rabbis added that special units were on site, including search teams and dental specialists equipped with mobile x-ray machines.
Hamas’s military wing, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, said in a statement on Sunday that it had “provided mediators with all the details and information we have” about the location of Gvili’s body.
He added that Israeli forces were “searching one of the sites.”
Meanwhile, Gvili’s family reiterated their strong opposition to reopening the Rafah crossing before his body is sent to Israel for burial. “First of all, Ran needs to be brought home,” they said.
The 24-year-old young man was killed in Kibbutz Alumim during Hamas’s attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, and his body was taken to Gaza as a hostage.
At the beginning of December, the Israeli government said the Rafah crossing would be opened “in the coming days” to allow Palestinians to leave Gaza.
But a dispute arose with Egypt over which the crossing would only be opened if movement in both directions was allowed, allowing the return of tens of thousands of Palestinians who fled Gaza during the war.
On Saturday, US special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner led a delegation that met with the Israeli prime minister for talks focused on implementing the second phase of the Gaza peace plan. Witkoff said the meeting was “constructive and positive.”
In the first phase, Hamas and Israel agreed to a ceasefire, the exchange of all living and dead Israeli hostages in Gaza for Palestinians detained in Israeli prisons, a partial Israeli withdrawal, and an increase in humanitarian aid deliveries.
The second phase envisages the reconstruction and complete demilitarization of the region, including the disarmament of Hamas and other groups, as well as a new technocratic Palestinian government in Gaza taking over the management of public services.
The war was triggered by an attack on October 7, 2023, in which approximately 1,200 people were killed and 251 people were taken to Gaza as hostages.
Israel responded by launching a military offensive in Gaza in which more than 71,650 people were killed, according to the region’s Hamas-run health ministry.
