Tel Aviv [Israel], January 27: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office announced late on January 25 that the country would only reopen the Rafah crossing, the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt, after completing the search for the body of the last remaining Israeli hostage in the area.
According to the ceasefire agreement reached in October between Israel and Hamas as part of a plan proposed by US President Donald Trump , the Rafah crossing should have been opened in the initial phase of the reconciliation process. However, Israel stipulated that the opening must be conditional on the release of all surviving hostages, and that Hamas must make a "100% effort" to locate and repatriate the bodies of all deceased hostages, according to Reuters.
Currently, only the body of police officer Ran Gvili remains unaccounted for. The Israeli military says it has launched a "targeted operation" in northern Gaza to recover his remains, based on newly gathered "intelligence leads."
According to the Israeli government , as part of President Trump's "20-point plan," Tel Aviv has agreed to reopen the Rafah crossing to pedestrians with restrictions, provided that Israel's security screening mechanisms are fully implemented. The Rafah crossing is currently the only route through which almost all of Gaza's more than 2 million residents can enter and exit the country.
Against this backdrop, the security situation in the Gaza Strip remains tense. On January 25th, the Gaza Ministry of Health accused Israeli fire of killing three Palestinians in two separate incidents, while a Tel Aviv drone injured four others in Gaza City. The Israeli military stated that it had not yet received any information regarding these incidents.
Source: Thanh Nien Newspaper
