Yes, opening the border crossing is progress. But the continued bombings mean that the war will remain on the back burner.
A The residents of the Gaza Strip had been waiting eagerly for this moment since May 2024. The barriers at the Rafah border crossing reopened on Monday. Over 1,250 seriously injured and 20,000 war-disabled Palestinians are currently in need of treatment in specialized Egyptian clinics, and in fact dozens of Egyptian Red Crescent ambulances were ready to assist them early this morning.
But on the day Gaza was reconnected to the world, only five patients, each with two companions, were allowed to cross the border guarded by Israeli soldiers towards Egypt. The ambulances leaving empty again are a symbol of the fact that even in phase two of Donald Trump’s Gaza plan, only the guns are silent in Gaza, nothing more.
And not even the ceasefire applies every day. Just on Sunday, Israeli rockets killed 23 people in their tents near Khan Yunis and Deir al-Balah. The Israeli army justified itself by killing Hamas leaders. Israel wants to continue its policy of ethnic cleansing from the Gaza Stripbelieve quite a few of Gaza’s residents, plagued by hunger and winter storms.
What is certain is that the ceasefire follows the logic of a similar agreement in southern Lebanon. The IDF continues to bomb there too. Hezbollah there, like Hamas in Gaza, refuses to actually implement the agreed disarmament. With the bombings and the occupation of large parts of Gaza and Lebanon during a ceasefire, Netanyahu may not want to weaken his opponents: the guerrilla-like air strikes guarantee a continuation of the war on the back burner.
Despite all the disappointment about the deadlock, the opening of the Rafah border crossing can be a glimmer of hope. Every day 150 people are allowed to pass through the area between Egypt and Gaza, which is secured by several walls, fences and barbed wire; Here too, Israel is relying on dominance. Travelers are screened using facial recognition software and hours-long interviews, and trucks carrying relief supplies remain banned.
Unarmed EU officials are stationed at the border crossing and are monitoring the Egyptian-Israeli agreement. Brussels must now step up its mission and persuade Netanyahu to allow the seriously injured to leave the country immediately. And above all, to allow those who had fled to re-enter the Gaza Strip. Otherwise it will be complicit in the ethnic cleansing of Gaza.
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