Israel prepares to reopen Rafah border crossing to allow aid trucks into Gaza | Gaza

The only border crossing between Gaza and Egypt was expected to open on Wednesday, allowing hundreds of trucks to carry urgently needed aid into the devastated Palestinian territory.

Aid agencies said they hoped for an increase in humanitarian aid, especially to northern Gaza, where more than 300,000 displaced people have returned in recent days. Thousands of tons of aid, including food and medical supplies, have been loaded onto trucks waiting in Egypt or stockpiled elsewhere in the region, humanitarian officials said.

The Egyptian Red Crescent said in a statement on Wednesday afternoon that at least 400 trucks carrying aid were heading towards Gaza, but it remained unclear how long it would take for the convoys to complete border formalities and enter the area.

The fragile ceasefire in Gaza was put to the first test on Tuesday when Israel accused Hamas of failing to comply with the agreement signed with Hamas last week by delaying the return of the bodies of hostages. In retaliation, Israel said it would reduce the number of trucks it would allow into Gaza to 300 (half the number agreed in the ceasefire agreement) and postpone the opening of the Rafah crossing indefinitely.

Hours later, Hamas handed over the remains of three hostages to the Red Cross, bringing to eight the number of bodies transferred since the US-brokered ceasefire took effect, leaving 21 bodies to account for.

The militant Islamist organization said the delays were due to difficulties locating grave sites among the piles of rubble left behind by two years of conflict. It turned out that the fourth body transferred by Hamas did not belong to a hostage.

According to Israel’s public broadcaster KAN, the decision to reopen Rafah came after Hamas notified Israel of its intention to return four more bodies on Wednesday; This move has not yet been confirmed by the group.

KAN also reported that heavy equipment necessary to repair damaged infrastructure will be allowed to enter Gaza, and Palestinians who left the region during the war will be allowed to return for the first time. Others will be allowed to leave through the Rafah crossing, subject to Israeli security approval.

Palestinians awaiting medical evacuation said they had not yet received notification from the World Health Organization to prepare for travel.

Amjad al-Shawa, director of the Palestinian NGO network and based in Gaza City, said the needs in what was once the region’s vibrant commercial and cultural hub were “enormous.”

“People have optimism and hope, but there needs to be a rapid improvement in transitions. We have not seen any significant change on the field yet,” Shawa said.

“We are still receiving very limited aid.” [and] We are just beginning to understand the extent of the destruction. So many streets are filled with rubble… There are almost no safe houses. “There is damage and unexploded bombs everywhere.”

Rafah has been closed since it was captured by Israeli forces in May 2024, and access to Gaza is restricted to entry points from Israel. Israel has repeatedly blocked aid from entering Gaza during the conflict, leading to accusations that it is using starvation as a weapon of war. A famine was declared in parts of the region in August.

The European Union said on Wednesday that a long-running humanitarian mission known as EUBAM (EU Border Assistance Missions) is ready to be deployed at the Rafah crossing if conditions on the ground improve.

Aid is desperately needed, with hundreds of thousands of people lacking clean water, food and other basic needs, and many more suffering greatly, humanitarian officials in Gaza City said on Wednesday.

Although aid was scheduled to start flowing from the weekend, crossings through Israel were closed on Monday to allow the transfer of hostages and Palestinian prisoners to reach Gaza, and Sunday was a national holiday in Israel.

Speaking from southern Gaza, Unicef’s Tess Ingram said: “We had heard that Sunday would be the first day of a massive increase in aid, but what we have seen so far is in stark contrast to how high and desperate the needs are.

“People aren’t sure when they’ll get water again. There’s not enough food. We had 45 outpatient nutrition clinics open in August, now we only have seven.”

Later stages of the ceasefire call for Hamas to disarm and cede all power, which Hamas has so far refused to do; instead he launched a security operation to reassert his authority in Gaza through public executions and clashes with local tribes.

Long-term elements of the ceasefire plan, including how Gaza will be governed and how an international stabilization force will be formed, have not yet been fully discussed.

Trump’s plan called for the surrender of all hostages, living and dead, by a deadline ending Monday. But negotiators acknowledged the logistical challenges of locating all remains amid widespread destruction in Gaza, and the deal only allows Hamas to share information about deceased hostages while efforts continue to return the bodies as quickly as possible.

On Monday, Israelis celebrated the return of the last 20 hostages living in Gaza and Palestinians rejoiced when Israel released nearly 2,000 prisoners and detainees as part of the first phase of the ceasefire. Negotiations are ongoing in the second phase, where many thorny issues must be resolved.

Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s far-right National Security Minister and opponent of the ceasefire plan, said the aid distribution in X was a “disgrace” at a demonstration of the political difficulties facing the ceasefire.

He accused Hamas of lies and harassment regarding the return of the hostages’ bodies, adding, “Nazi understands terrorism only through force, and the only way to solve problems with it is to wipe it off the face of the earth.”

The Hostages Family Forum, a group representing most hostage families, said the three dead hostages whose remains were identified Tuesday night were Uriel Baruch, Tamir Nimrodi and Eitan Levi.

Baruch was kidnapped from the Nova music festival in October 2023 during the Hamas attack on Israel that triggered the war in Gaza. Nimrodi, who worked in the Israeli Defense Ministry’s unit controlling the entry points to Gaza, was kidnapped by militants at the Erez border gate. The forum said Levi was kidnapped while taking a friend to the kibbutz during the Hamas offensive.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which oversees the transfer of bodies, said on Monday that the recovery process was a “huge challenge” and could take days or weeks, given the difficulties of finding bodies in the rubble of Gaza.