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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that Gaza’s Rafah crossing will remain closed until further notice.
The announcement came shortly after the Palestinian embassy in Egypt claimed that the crossing, between Gaza and Egypt, would reopen on Monday.
“The crossing’s opening will be considered based on the manner in which Hamas fulfils its part in returning the deceased hostages and implementing the agreed-upon framework,” Mr Netanyahu’s office said in a statement on Saturday.
The crossing has been largely closed since May 2024, bar a brief reopening in early 2025.
The embassy said its reopening would allow Palestinians residing in Egypt to return to Gaza.
However, the embassy’s announcement did not specify whether humanitarian aid would also be permitted to pass through.
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Trucks carrying humanitarian aid and fuel line up at the crossing into the Gaza Strip at the Rafah border on the Egypt side (Reuters)
Since the US-brokered halt to two years of devastating war, some 560 metric tons of food have entered the Gaza Strip per day on average.
This figure, according to the UN World Food Programme, is still well below the scale of need.
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 ceasefire.
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 that famine was unfolding in Gaza City in the enclave’s north.
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A doctor in Gaza City measures a child’s arm to check for signs of malnutrition (AP)
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 says that the figures are exaggerated and that many of the deaths were attributable to other causes.
Israel announced in late July that it was expanding measures to let more aid into Gaza.
However, Gaza’s side of the Rafah crossing remained closed, meaning shipments were routed through the Israeli crossing of Kerem Shalom, about three kilometres (two miles) to the south.
Aid workers and truck drivers have 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.
