Israel says Rafah Crossing to reopen when IDF finishes current search for last hostage body

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office announces that Israel will reopen the Rafah Crossing between Gaza and Egypt after it completes a military operation launched Sunday to recover the body of the last deceased hostage, Master Sgt. Ran Gvili.

The announcement follows a security cabinet meeting on the issue, and as Israel has faced significant international pressure to reopen the Rafah Crossing.

While the statement from Netanyahu’s office does not give a specific timeline for how long the IDF operation seeking to recover Gvili’s body will take, a US official tells The Times of Israel that Washington expects the search to last several days, allowing for the reopening of Rafah by the end of this week.

The IDF confirmed earlier this evening that it is searching for Gvili’s body in a cemetery in the northern Gaza Strip. The IDF said that while it is credible that Gvili’s remains are located at the cemetery, there are other potential intelligence leads on where his body could be.

The chief commissioner of the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza and the Gaza envoy for the NCAG-overseeing Board of Peace already announced on Thursday that Rafah would reopen this week for the first time in nearly one year.

Netanyahu’s office says in a statement that the opening of the only crossing between Egypt and Gaza was conditioned “on the return of all living hostages and on Hamas making a 100% effort to locate and return all slain hostages.”

October 9’s Israel-Hamas deal on the first phase of US President Donald Trump’s broader Gaza peace plan provided for the return of all hostages within 72-hours of the October 10 ceasefire commencement, but it left open the possibility that the recovery of bodies from underneath Gaza’s rubble might take longer and did not explicitly condition Rafah’s reopening on the return of all captives.

The PMO statement says that the IDF is right now conducting “a focused operation to fully utilize all intelligence obtained in the effort to locate and return” Gvili.

When that operation is complete, “and in accordance with what was agreed on with the United States,” Israel will reopen the crossing, Netanyahu’s office says.

Netanyahu’s office stresses that Israel is committed to Gvili’s return and will do everything it can to bring his body back.

While it was also used for goods throughout the war, the Rafah Crossing’s intended use is for pedestrians.