Israel rules out allowing Palestinian Authority to operate Rafah Crossing – report

Israel has said it is not prepared to allow the Palestinian Authority to play a role in operating the Rafah Crossing in southern Gaza, Axios reports, citing four US and Israeli officials familiar with the matter.

The crossing on the Gaza-Egypt border has remained closed after the IDF took control of the Palestinian side last month, as Egypt said it would refuse to reopen it until it was back under Palestinian control, to avoid being seen as complicit with Israel’s military operation in the southernmost Gaza city.

Following US pressure, both sides agreed in principle last week to reopen the crossing to humanitarian aid, but have reportedly since failed to make any real progress toward meeting that goal.

Speaking to Axios, two anonymous Israeli sources say that ahead of a meeting on the issue in Cairo last Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the security cabinet that he was not prepared to allow the Palestinian Authority to run the crossing in any capacity.

According to the report, his comments contradicted a policy that was approved in the war cabinet days earlier in which it was agreed that any governing Palestinian entity other than Hamas would be permitted to oversee the border crossing’s day-to-day operations.