As the war between Israeli forces and Hamas approached its tenth day, Israel denied suggestions of a ceasefire in Gaza to allow humanitarian aid and foreigners to leave for Egypt. “There is currently no ceasefire or humanitarian aid in Gaza in exchange for the removal of foreigners,” declared the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Convoys of humanitarian aid stacked up at the Egypt-Gaza border, unable to enter Gaza, which has been bombarded by Israel. On Saturday, an American official informed AFP that Egypt and Israel had agreed to enable US Americans to leave Gaza through the Rafah crossing, which has been denied by Israel.
The Rafah border crossing is the sole way in and out of Gaza that is not controlled by Israel. Since Tuesday, the bridge has been closed due to Israeli bombings on Palestinian border posts. On October 1, 1906, the Ottoman-British agreement created a border between Palestine, which was then administered by the Ottoman Empire, and Egypt, which was then ruled by Britain. The boundary stretched all the way from Taba to Rafah. The Egyptian-Israeli Peace Treaty of 1979 returned the boundary to the 1906 line. Egypt took control of the Sinai Peninsula, while Israel retained control of Gaza. Shortly after the accord was signed, Israeli forces began to withdraw from the peninsula.
The Rafah Crossing Point was opened as an international border for the first time
Following the withdrawal of the last Israeli troops, the Rafah Crossing Point was opened as an international border for the first time, making the border both legally and practically international. The current Gaza-Egypt border crossing was established following the Camp David Accords in 1982. Palestinians, on the other hand, have been dealing with the unpredictability of Israel-controlled border crossings for years. Following the First Intifada, the Gaza-Jericho Agreement in 1994 was a watershed moment that granted Palestine authority and established a new system of joint control over the Rafah Crossing.
The Palestinian Authority (PA) had some control over security and screening procedures under this system, but Israel retained control over the majority of the crossing’s security and operations, as well as the authority to examine and restrict admission to anyone. This section of the Agreement was eventually declared null and void and was replaced with nearly identical language in the Oslo II Agreement. A Jewish right-wing fanatic opposed to the Accords assassinated then-Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in Tel Aviv the following year.
Israel and the Palestinian Authority signed the Movement and Access Agreement in 2005, bringing the crossing under “full” Palestinian sovereignty
Right-wing Israeli politician Ariel Sharon visited the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem’s Old City in September 2000, which is Islam’s third holiest site and treasured by Jews as the Temple Mount, their most sacred location. This was interpreted as “provocation” by Palestinians, sparking the Second Intifada. This added to the complications of the Rafah crossing. In 2001, Israel prohibited Palestinians from working at the Rafah Crossing, restoring it to Israeli control. The Second Intifada was directly responsible for this. Israel would continue to bar Palestinian workers until its withdrawal from Gaza four years later, on September 8, 2005.
The Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority signed the Movement and Access Agreement (AMA) in 2005, bringing the crossing under “full” Palestinian sovereignty, but with a catch. According to the deal, Israel has the authority to seal the border and prevent anyone from passing whenever it wants. On June 25, 2006, Palestinian militants kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. In retaliation to the capture, Israel blocked the Rafah crossing, which remained closed for a year. The capture of Gaza by Hamas hindered the implementation of the AMA, and the city was placed under perpetual siege. A week earlier, Hamas, which had controlled the PA legislature since winning the 2006 election, had seceded and taken control of Gaza. Between then and 2009, Egypt and Gaza opened the crossing infrequently and irregularly.
Following the Egyptian Revolution, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, an opponent of Hamas, stepped down in 2011. This ensured that the Rafah crossing reopened on a regular basis. However, when Egypt’s President Mohamed Morsi, a Hamas backer, was deposed in a coup headed by General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi in 2013, the Rafah crossing was closed once more. Following the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, Hamas shuttered the gate, marking a rare instance of a Palestinian authority closing the border. The following year, as international crossings opened up as the virus receded, Hamas and Egypt met in Cairo and reopened the bridge.
