Egypt pushing for Palestinian Authority to take over Gaza’s Rafah Crossing – report
Plan said to be first step in larger move enabling PA to take over other strategic areas of Strip after war against Hamas ends
Talks are underway between Egypt and the Palestinian Authority for the latter to assume responsibility for the Rafah Border Crossing between the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula, the Kan public broadcaster reported Saturday, citing unnamed sources familiar with the details.
The report, which described the contacts as “meaningful dialogue,” said that the Egyptians aim for the move to be the first element of a plan to have the West Bank-based PA gradually take over other strategic places in Gaza after the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, despite the Israeli leadership consistently rejecting the idea of handing the PA a role in ruling postwar Gaza.
Senior PA official Hussein al-Sheikh has in recent days met an Egyptian official based in Ramallah to discuss the plan, which is strongly supported by Cairo and likely also backed by the US, the report said, adding that the intention is to have the PA openly take control of the crossing, without masking or hiding its involvement.
Israel pulled out of the Gaza Strip in 2005 and in 2007 Palestinian terror group Hamas seized the coastal territory from the PA in a bloody coup. On October 7, Hamas led a devastating cross-border attack on Israel in which 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed and 251 people were taken to Gaza as hostages.
The attack started the ongoing war in which Israel has sought to destroy Hamas and free the hostages.
Israeli forces captured the Rafah Crossing on the Gaza-Egypt border in May and it has remained closed, with Egypt refusing to reopen the gateway until it was back under Palestinian control, to avoid being seen as complicit with Israel’s military operation in the southernmost Gaza city of the same name. The crossing is a major conduit for aid into Gaza and its closure has worsened the humanitarian crisis caused by the war.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has refused to allow any PA involvement in Gaza, likening PA President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party to Hamas. Netanyahu’s far-right coalition partners are even more opposed and have advocated for collapsing the PA, which rules over parts of the West Bank.
But recently Jerusalem has begun to rethink its position on that key issue, with Netanyahu’s circle beginning to recognize that the PA is the only viable alternative at the moment, even as it pushes for major reforms in Ramallah, officials told the Times of Israel last month.
Moreover, reopening the Rafah Crossing is integral to the success of efforts to reach a mediated deal between Israel and Hamas for a form of ceasefire in exchange for hostages. The latest proposal specifies that wounded Hamas fighters will be allowed to travel through the Rafah Crossing to receive medical treatment during the first phase of the ceasefire.
Last month, the Axios website reported that Israeli, Palestinian Authority and US officials held a secret meeting on opening the border crossing.
According to Axios, the meeting was held in Tel Aviv and attended by US Middle East envoy Brett McGurk, Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar, and Abbas’s top advisers al-Sheikh and director of intelligence Majed Faraj.
The report, citing three Israeli and US officials, said the Israelis stressed that Netanyahu was opposed to the direct involvement of the PA in running the Rafah Crossing and urged the PA to send people in an unofficial capacity. However, the PA refused.
Hamas and Abbas’s Fatah party, which rules the PA, were divided for years after the 2007 coup in Gaza. Last month, with Chinese mediation, they signed a declaration to set up an “interim national reconciliation government” to govern postwar Gaza.
