Trucks loaded with humanitarian aid are parked on the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing, waiting to get access to the Gaza Strip, on Oct. 12, 2025. (Credit: AFP)
Gaza's Rafah border crossing with Egypt will reopen on Monday, the Palestinian embassy in Egypt said on Saturday, almost a week after a U.S.-brokered cease-fire and hostage deal was agreed between Israel and Hamas.
The crossing, which has been largely closed since May 2024, will allow Palestinians residing in Egypt to return to Gaza, the embassy said in a statement. It did not say whether humanitarian aid would also be allowed to pass through the crossing.
Since the U.S.-brokered halt to two years of devastating war, around 560 metric tons of food have entered the Gaza Strip per day on average — still well below the scale of need, according to the U.N. World Food Program.
The crossing was shut to aid after Israeli forces seized the Gaza side in May 2024, but was briefly reopened in early 2025 during a short-lived cease-fire between the two sides.
After two years of bombardment and blockade, the need for food, medicine, shelter and other aid in Gaza is extreme. In March, Israel launched an 11-week blockade of all aid into Gaza, causing food stockpiles to dwindle and prices to shoot up.
In August, a global hunger monitor declared famine was unfolding in Gaza City in the enclave's north. Israel dismissed the findings as false and biased.
Gaza's health authorities say that more than 400 people have
died from malnutrition-related causes. Israel claims the figures
are exaggerated.
Israel announced in late July it was expanding measures to let more aid into Gaza. But Gaza's side of the Rafah crossing, under Israeli control, remained closed, meaning shipments were routed through the Israeli crossing of Kerem Shalom, about three kilometers (2 miles) to the south.
Aid workers and truck drivers complained that they faced a host of obstacles at Kerem Shalom, ranging from rejections for minor packing and paperwork issues to short hours at the Israeli crossing, meaning they could only bring in a fraction of the aid that was needed. Israel denies that it has limited aid into the enclave.
Reporting by Nidal Al-Mughrabi; Writing by Alex Dziadosz and Hatem Maher; Editing by Jan Harvey
Egypt will reopen on Monday, the Palestinian embassy in Egypt
said on Saturday, almost a week after a U.S.-brokered cease-fire
and hostage deal was agreed between Israel and Hamas.
The crossing, which has been largely closed since May 2024,
will allow Palestinians residing in Egypt to return to Gaza, the
embassy said in a statement. It did not say whether humanitarian
aid would also be allowed to pass through the crossing.
Since the U.S.-brokered halt to two years of devastating
war, around 560 metric tons of food have entered the Gaza Strip
per day on average — still well below the scale of need,
according to the U.N. World Food Program.
The crossing was shut to aid after Israeli forces seized the
Gaza side in May 2024, but was briefly reopened in...
Humanitarian convoy reaches Rmeish, Ain Ibl, Dibil despite obstacles
