A bus driver looks out the window while carrying Palestinian patients and war-wounded people, accompanied by relatives, as they get ready to leave the Gaza Strip for their treatment abroad through the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt, days after it was opened by Israel for a limited number of people, in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip on Feb. 3, 2026. (Credit: Bashar Taleb/AFP)
A handful of injured Palestinians and their companions entered Egypt from Gaza on Monday, the first day of a limited reopening of the Rafah border crossing, a source on the Egyptian side of the border told AFP.
"Five injured people and seven companions" crossed the border, the source said on Tuesday.
The reopening, demanded by the United Nations and aid groups, is a key part of the second phase of U.S. President Donald Trump's plan for Gaza, where humanitarian conditions remain dire after two years of Israeli onslaught on the territory.
The number of patients allowed to enter Egypt through the crossing was limited to 50 on Monday, each accompanied by two companions, according to three officials at the Egyptian border.
An Egyptian health official told AFP on Monday that three ambulances had arrived with Palestinian patients who were screened upon arrival to determine which hospital to be taken to.
Al-Qahera News, citing Egypt's health ministry, reported that 150 hospitals and 300 ambulances had been prepared to receive Palestinian patients.
It said that 12,000 doctors and 30 rapid deployment teams had been allocated to work with those transferred.
The director of Gaza City's Al-Shifa Hospital, Mohammed Abu Salmiya, said there were 20,000 patients in Gaza in urgent need of treatment, including 4,500 children.
There was no official announcement of the number of people who returned to Gaza via the crossing.
AFP images on Monday showed empty buses crossing back to Egypt after transporting Palestinians to Gaza earlier in the day.
The partial resumption of operations at the crossing comes after Israeli forces seized control of the gateway to Egypt in May 2024, after it violated a previously established cease-fire and resumed its war on Gaza.
Gaza's civil defense reported that Israel killed dozens of Palestinians in a wave strikes over the weekend.
Ali Shaath, the head of a Palestinian technocratic committee established to oversee the day-to-day governance of Gaza, said Rafah's reopening offered a "window of hope" for the territory.
