Netanyahu: Border crossing between Gaza and Egypt will remain closed

(Patria) - The Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt will remain closed until further notice, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday, adding that its reopening will depend on the handover of the bodies of deceased hostages by Hamas, Reuters reported.

Netanyahu's statement came shortly after the Palestinian embassy in Egypt announced that the Rafah crossing, the main gateway for Gaza residents to enter and exit the enclave, would reopen on Monday for entry into Gaza.

Hamas said in a statement late on Saturday that Netanyahu's decision "constitutes a clear violation of the ceasefire agreement and a rejection of the commitments made to the mediators and guarantor parties".

They added that the continued closure of the Rafah crossing will prevent the entry of equipment needed to search for and locate the bodies of hostages under the rubble, and that this will delay the finding and handover of the remains.

Earlier that day, Hamas announced that it would hand over two more hostage bodies at 10 p.m. local time, meaning twelve of the 28 bodies will be handed over to Israel in accordance with the ceasefire and hostage agreement, brokered by the United States, which Israel and Hamas reached last week.

Israel: Hamas too slow in returning bodies

The dispute over the return of bodies highlights the fragility of the ceasefire and still has the potential to disrupt the agreement, along with other important issues included in US President Donald Trump's twenty-point plan to end the war.

As part of the agreement, Hamas released all twenty living hostages it held for two years, in exchange for nearly 2,000 Palestinian detainees and convicted prisoners held in Israel.

But Israel claims Hamas has been too slow in handing over the bodies of deceased hostages it still holds. The militant group claims that locating some of the bodies amidst the massive destruction in Gaza will take time.

The agreement requires Israel to return 360 bodies of Palestinian militants for deceased Israeli hostages, and so far it has handed over fifteen bodies in exchange for each Israeli body it has received. Rafah has been largely closed since May 2024. The ceasefire agreement also includes increased aid to the enclave, where hundreds of thousands of people were found to be suffering from hunger in August,
according to data from IPC's Global Hunger Monitor.

After suspending all supplies for eleven weeks in March, Israel increased aid to Gaza in July, further increasing it since the truce.

Around 560 metric tons of food entered Gaza on average daily since the US-brokered truce, but this was still significantly below the volume of needs, according to data from the United Nations World Food Programme.
Huge obstacles to Trump's plan to end the war still exist. Key issues of Hamas disarmament and how Gaza will be governed, the composition of international "stabilization forces", and steps towards the creation of a Palestinian state have not yet been resolved.