Ambulances enter the Gaza Strip via the Rafah border crossing to transport patients from two hospitals in the north and south of Gaza for treatment in Egypt on Saturday.Mohamed Hossam/The Globe and Mail
Injured Palestinians continued to arrive into Egypt from Gaza via the Rafah Crossing on Sunday after its reopening over the weekend as part of the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas.
On the second day of the crossing’s opening, 25 Palestinians entered Egypt for medical treatment, Egypt Today reported. On Saturday when it opened for the first time since last May, a stream of yellow and green Egyptian Health Ministry ambulances drove through the Rafah gate to bring about 50 Palestinian patients and their caregiver companions into Egypt. The Gaza Health Ministry said that 30 of the children had cancer.
Some were to be taken to specialist hospitals, since not all the patients could be treated in the two nearby hospitals in the northern Sinai desert.
In an interview with The Globe and Mail Saturday on the Egyptian side of the crossing, Khaled Megawer, Governor of North Sinai, said the Rafah reopening was strong evidence that the ceasefire could lead to a permanent one after 16 months of war. “It’s a good sign that we are moving to a ceasefire that all of international society wants,” he told reporters. The first stage of the deal went into effect Jan. 19.
Khaled Megawer, Governor of North Sinai, speaks to media at the Rafah border crossing on Saturday.Mohamed Hossam/The Globe and Mail
Mr. Megawer said the opening on Saturday came as a surprise, since he had been told the gates were to open on Sunday. He expects many more patients to reach Egypt in the coming days.
“We will take as many as possible in the north Sinai and others will go to other hospitals,” he said. “The priority for us is the injured.”
Israel has agreed to allow at least 50 medical patients to cross daily from Gaza to Egypt, each with a companion.
Palestinians wounded in the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip are transported by ambulance through the Rafah border crossing into Egypt to receive medical treatment.Jehad Alshrafi/The Associated Press
Last week, UN Secretary-General António Guterres called for 2,500 Gazan children to be released for medical treatment. He said so after meeting American doctors who said the children were in danger of dying unless they were treated immediately.
The patients left Gaza as three more male civilian hostages were released by Hamas as part of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire agreement. Seventeen of the first 33 hostages due for release in the first stage of the ceasefire have now gone home in exchange for 400 Palestinian prisoners.
Of the 400, 183 were released on Saturday.
Palestinian prisoners celebrate after being released by Israel as part of a hostages-prisoners swap and a ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel, in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, on Feb. 1, 2025.Ramadan Abed/Reuters
At one point on Saturday afternoon, a white van full of passengers wearing face masks drove into the Egyptian side of the crossing. Egyptian media said the van contained seven Palestinians and one Egyptian released by the Israelis. The seven Palestinians had been serving life sentences.
The Rafah Crossing is actually two crossings side by side. The main gate is for foot traffic and ambulances. The other, to its immediate right, is the truck entrance for food and humanitarian supplies.
The truck entrance has been open on and off since the start of the war, taking as many as 50 loads a day of food and medical supplies, but not fuel, into Gaza. On many days, no trucks made it through the gates as the Palestinian side of Rafah endured heavy Israeli attacks. Since the Oct. 7 attacks upon Israel by Hamas – in which more than 1,200 people were killed in Israel and at least 251 people taken hostage – the Israeli military has said that these attacks on Gaza were for security purposes.
Since Oct. 7, 2023, Gaza has endured a heightening humanitarian crisis that led to widespread malnutrition in the 41-kilometre-long strip.
Since the start of the ceasefire, 250 to 350 trucks a day have entered Gaza, including a couple of dozen fuel tankers. On the desert highway leading to Rafah, hundreds of trucks lined the sides of the road, their drivers waiting patiently to cross.
Trucks loaded with humanitarian aid bound for the Gaza Strip wait at the Rafah border crossing with Egypt on Feb. 1, 2025.Mohamed Hossam/The Globe and Mail
The trucks were loaded with citrus fruits, potatoes and flour. Other trucks carried plastic chairs and basins, as well as household items for children such as potties. No truck seen by The Globe and Mail was carrying construction equipment. Israel is not allowing cement and iron reinforcement bars into Gaza for fear that they could be used by Hamas to rebuild tunnels.
On Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath, only a few trucks made it across the border. One driver, Hussein Ahmed, 30, with his truck laden with 25 tonnes of oranges, left Cairo 10 days ago and did not know when he would be able to cross. “The road is bad and there are so many police checks,” he said.
Like all the drivers waiting at the crossing, he sleeps and cooks meals in his truck. In spite of the delays, Mr. Ahmed was not afraid his oranges would spoil, since the winter nights in the Sinai desert are cool enough to preserve them.
Upon entering the Palestinian side of Rafah from Egypt, the trucks make a hard right turn and travel about five kilometres to the Karem Shalom crossing, on the border with Israel and Egypt, where the loads are inspected by the Israelis. At that point, the UN and its various agencies distribute the food and other items.
Some of the food is distributed from Nitzana, on the Egyptian-Israeli border, 40 kilometres south of Rafah.
The European Union’s foreign-policy chief, Kaja Kallas, said Friday that the bloc’s 27 countries had deployed monitors at the Rafah crossing at the request of the Palestinians and the Israelis. They “will support Palestinian border personnel and allow the transfer of individuals out of Gaza, including those who need medical care,” she wrote on X.