Name: Uncertainty around reopening of Gaza's Rafah border crossing | DW News
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Israel has said it will reopen the Rafah border crossing in a matter of days.

For people on foot, the move would pave the way for Palestinians who fled Gaza during the two year war to return home for the first time and for tens of thousands who need medical care to seek treatment abroad.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the reopening will be limited, with movement in and out of Gaza subject to Israeli security checks.

Journalist Karim El Ghabori joins me now from Cairo.

Karim, it seems that the conditions for the reopening have been met as drawn out in the ceasefire agreement.

Yeah, well, the talk is that this is going to happen within a few days.

Mind you, it was supposed to happen in the first phase of the ceasefire agreement that started last October.

Israel then argued that it first wants to have the return of all hostages.

Then it also linked it with the disarmament of Hamas.

Then Israel dropped the idea of, or put out the idea to do this only in one way, the way out.

And that was rejected by the Egyptians because he said, this is another part of the displacement scene.

Now it's clear that we have a significant US pressure now to really open the Rafah crossing towards Israel.

The talk is about a limited opening with full Israeli inspection, a pedestrian passage only, and

When it comes to this opening, is the traffic, the aid, the people going to be crossing at anything like the pace and volume that it was before it was closed?

No, I don't think this is going to be the case.

Already the Israeli side is saying that basically they want to link how many people go in with how many people go out and preferably want to have more people out.

So the whole thing will be under a very strong Israeli control, screened by the Israeli side, of course.

On Egyptian sides you will have the Egyptians.

On the other side you will have first, most likely EU officials with Palestinian uniformed officials linked to the Palestinian authorities.

The most sensitive issue is really how many people are coming in and out and most likely now out.

We have more than 17,000 medical cases registered for urgent evacuation.

And as it comes for in, we have about 150,000 Palestinians that left the Gaza Strip since the Israel Israeli offensive and living in Egypt, 30,000 registered for a return.

How many really wanted to occur is unclear because of course of the very catastrophic conditions inside the Gaza Strip.

And so you spoke about US pressure before and Egypt a little.

What role or how big a role will Egypt and the EU play In setting these new conditions, the rule, if you like, that will regulate the crossing going forward, or is it Israel that completely has final say on all conditions?

Well, Israel has final say on all conditions.

That's the condition for them to open if they're not really physically present directly at the crossing.

There will be other kinds of methods of screening and then there will be later an Israeli checkpoint most likely to screen people going in and out.

Not all operational details are sorted out yet, but

there is clearly an Arab and Palestinian frustration about how long all this is taking.

Because given the fact that this should have been happened already in the first place, are international mediators at this point, Karim, playing a visible role in trying and applying pressure here to get this crossing open sooner rather than later.

But what was interesting that the Palestinians and also the Arab side were first one sidedly announcing the opening of the Rafah crossing during the meeting in Davos, trying to put pressure on the Israeli side to finally open it and to open it in both ways.

That was the most important condition for the Egyptian side.

So they tried to, to put pressure by announcing that.

But what's really happening, I think, and

why it's most likely happening to open is going to open now is due to clear US Pressure now on the Israeli sides.

We hear this from all kinds of mediator that this pressure was quite significant in the last days.

Journalist Karim El Ghawadi in Cairo, thanks so much.

DW correspondent Emily Gordine joins us now from Jerusalem with more.

Well, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that once the last remaining Israeli hostage was recovered, the Rafah crossing would reopen.

The body of Rang, really the last remaining deceased Israeli hostage was recovered earlier this week and he was laid to rest yesterday.

But Netanyahu didn't give a specific timeline on when the Rafah crossing would reopen.

Neither did Ali Shah, the new head of the Palestinian technocratic committee that is tasked to take over, to take over the governing of Gaza as part of this cease fire deal.

He put out a statement a week ago saying that the Rafah crossing would open this week, but

again, no specification on when and who and things like these.

There are some reports that the technocratic committee will be allowed to enter Gaza today, but

I think we still have to wait and see whether that really happens.

In the meantime, this means for thousands of Palestinians in Gaza who await, who need vital medical treatment abroad and for the thousands of Palestinians who are stuck in Egypt, who are waiting to be reunited with their loved ones in Gaza.

It means more uncertainty and more waiting.

And we understand that no goods will be allowed through Rafah for now.

What does that mean for humanitarian operations?

Well, for the humanitarian operation, it means that they will have to rely on the crossings that go via the Israeli border.

Now, more aid has been getting through these crossings through Israeli territory, but

the UN says that 80% of the population in Gaza still faces hunger.

There's still a vast shortage of medical supplies, of fuel and other vital goods.

That is in part due to the ongoing disputes over so called dual use items where the Israeli authorities are, are essentially rejecting or opposing the entry of certain goods into the Gaza Strip out of security risks, because they say that Hamas could use these items for so called terrorist activities.

But Israel has also revoked the licenses of 37 NGOs from operating in the Gaza Strip, from operating in Israel, really.

And that prevents them from operating in Gaza.

And that means, of course, that operations, the humanitarian aid operations in Gaza are hampered.

It has affected organizations such as Doctors Without Borders, for example.

And at the same time, these operations that are still ongoing in the Gaza Strip are ongoing in an atmosphere where they're still bombing, they're still shelling.

Over the last two weeks, over 100 Palestinians were killed.

And among humanitarian organizations, there is still some hope that maybe the pressure could be alleviated more if humanitarian aids would be getting in through the Rafah crossing.

But as of now, that is not an option on the table.

And are international mediators playing a visible role in trying to get the crossing fully open?

Well, US President Donald Trump a couple of weeks ago announced that the second phase of the cease fire deal had already started.

That does not reflect the realities on the ground.

We saw on the Israeli side that the Prime Minister, Prime Minister Netanyahu made it a condition that, for example, the Rafah border crossing to be opened, which is part of the first phase of the cease fire deal.

The last remaining Israeli hostage had to be returned.

Now the last Israeli hostage has been returned.

We're still waiting for the Rafah crossing to open.

And once that first phase is complete, then we might see a movement towards the second phase.

But even then, it's unclear how that will look like.

The second phase entails the disarmament of Hamas.

It's not clear who will do that, whether Hamas will do it themselves.

And it's also not clear whether the Israeli army will in fact withdraw from Gaza territory.

So a lot of question marks still loom over the process of the second phase, and