By Stephen Farrell
(Reuters) – The Egyptian-controlled Rafah crossing is Gaza’s main lifeline to the outside world that is not run by Israel.
It is on Gaza’s southern border with Egypt, and has become the focal point of efforts to deliver humanitarian aid, and allow out injured people and foreign passport holders.
Israel imposed a “total siege” on the Palestinian enclave following the deadly attack by Hamas militants on Oct. 7 that killed more than 1,400 Israelis.
WHY IS RAFAH IN THE NEWS?
With Israel’s border crossings closed, Rafah is the only way that Gazans can leave the 360 sq km coastal strip.
The first group of injured evacuees left through Rafah on Nov. 1, Egyptian media and a source at the border told Reuters. They were followed by the first foreign passport holders, two sources at the border said.
Qatar mediated an agreement between Egypt, Israel and Hamas, in coordination with the United States, to allow limited evacuations.
Although Israel does not directly control the Rafah crossing, it monitors all activity in southern Gaza from Kerem Shalom military base, and other surveillance.
WHY IS THE RAFAH CROSSING SO IMPORTANT IN THIS CONFLICT?
Israel controls all sea and air access to Gaza and most of its land borders.
It tightened its existing restrictions into a total blockade after on Oct. 7, leaving Rafah as the only entry point for humanitarian aid.
WHAT IS THE LATEST ON AID TO THE GAZA STRIP?
In the first days of the war, Egypt said Rafah was open but inoperable due to Israeli bombardment in Gaza. After wrangling over conditions for delivering aid stranded on the Egyptian side, the first humanitarian convoy crossed into Gaza on Oct. 21.
The number of aid trucks going through Rafah averages 14 daily, U.N. aid officials say, far fewer than the 100 they estimate are needed to meet basic needs.
In normal times more than 400 trucks go into Gaza daily – through various routes – to supply 2.3 million people.
Desperation for essentials like bread drove Gazans to break into U.N. warehouses on Oct. 29 to seize flour and other items.
WHY IS IT DIFFICULT TO GET LARGE-SCALE AID THROUGH RAFAH?
Aid officials say Rafah’s principal role in the past was as a civilian crossing and that it was not equipped for a large-scale aid operation.
Egyptian officials say Israeli inspection procedures “significantly delay the arrival of aid”.
Aid trucks drive through the Egyptian border gate at Rafah before heading more than 40km (25 miles) to the Egyptian-Israeli crossing of Al-Awja/Nitzana for inspection, as agreed in negotiations with Israel. Trucks return to Egypt empty, with the aid reloaded onto separate trucks for delivery into Gaza.
Israel refuses to allow fuel into Gaza, saying it could be used by the Hamas militant group for their military goals.
During past conflicts aid was mainly delivered from Israel, and the U.N. aid operation for Palestinians has been run through Israel since the 1950s.
The United Nations has pushed for Israel to open its Kerem Shalom crossing, near where Israel, Gaza and Egypt meet.
CAN U.S. CITIZENS AND DUAL NATIONALS LEAVE GAZA?
The Qatar-mediated deal allows for limited evacuations of foreign passport holders. A list was agreed between Israel and Egypt, a Western official said.
Egyptian sources said on Nov. 1 that 500 foreign passport holders were expected to pass through Rafah in the coming days.
WHY IS ACCESS THROUGH RAFAH RESTRICTED BY EGYPT?
Egypt is the only Arab state to share a border with Gaza and it fears the destabilising effect of an exodus of Palestinians. Egypt and Jordan have both warned against Palestinians being forced off their land.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi is also wary of Hamas, an Islamist armed group created by the Muslim Brotherhood.
Since Hamas took control in Gaza in 2007, Egypt has helped enforce a blockade of the enclave.
During a previous blockage in 2008 Hamas blasted holes in Egypt’s border fortifications. That allowed tens of thousands of Palestinians to cross into Sinai, and prompted Egypt to build a stone and cement wall.
Egypt is also wary of insecurity in northeastern Sinai, where it faced an Islamist insurgency that has now largely been suppressed.
Egypt has mediated between Israel and Palestinian factions during past conflicts. But in those situations it also locked down the border, allowing aid in and medical evacuees out but preventing any large-scale movement of people.
WILL GAZANS LEAVE?
Around 1.6 million Palestinians in Gaza are refugees, according to the U.N., two thirds of its population.
Many are determined not to repeat the mass displacement of the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s founding, when some 700,000 Palestinians fled or were driven from their homes, and have been denied return.
They mourn it as the “Nakba”, or “catastrophe”. Israel contests the assertion that it drove Palestinians out, saying it was attacked by five Arab states.
(Writing by Stephen Farrell, Aidan Lewis and Edmund Blair; Editing by Janet Lawrence and Alison Williams)
