Gaza’s Rafah border crossing to reopen on Oct 20, Palestinian embassy in Egypt says
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Trucks carrying humanitarian aid and fuel lining up at the crossing into the Gaza Strip at the Rafah border on the Egypt side.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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Gaza’s Rafah border crossing with Egypt will reopen on Oct 20, the Palestinian embassy in Egypt said on Oct 18, almost a week after a US-brokered ceasefire 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 be allowed to pass through the crossing.
Since the US-brokered halt to two years of devastating war, around 560 tonnes of food have entered the Gaza Strip a day on average – still well below the scale of need, according to the UN World Food Programme.
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 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
Gaza’s health authorities say more than 400 people have died from malnutrition-related causes. Israel says the figures are exaggerated, and many deaths were attributable to other causes.
Israel announced in late July it was expanding measures to let more aid into Gaza. But Gaza’s side of the Rafah crossing remained closed, meaning shipments were routed through the Israeli crossing of Kerem Shalom, about 3km 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 bring in only a fraction of the aid that was needed.
Israel denies that it has limited aid into the enclave. REUTERS
