US official: Rafah crossing will reopen ‘with security coordination between US, Israel and Egypt’

A US official says the Rafah Border Crossing between Gaza and Egypt will reopen “with very good security coordination between the US, Israel, and Egypt.”

The US official briefing reporters on condition of anonymity doesn’t give an exact timeline for the reopening of the border gate, but a different US official told The Times of Israel on Sunday that Washington expects it to happen by the end of this week, consistent with announcements from the head of the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG) and the Board of Peace’s high representative for Gaza during the Board of Peace’s signing ceremony last week.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Sunday that it would reopen Rafah once Israel completed an operation to retrieve the remains of the last remaining hostage in Gaza, which it succeeded in doing on Monday.

“We’re now building a local Palestinian police force that can start policing themselves. Ultimately, it’s going to be up to the government of Gaza and the people of Gaza to make sure that Gaza is secure,” the US official says on the briefing.

“The more that they can show that it’s secure and not going to pose a threat to its neighbors, the more that they can help themselves by having a lot of these materials come in,” he adds.

Asked about the potential for including a Palestinian representative on the Board of Peace, the US official says that the Palestinian Authority “has an observer status” with NCAG.

He doesn’t elaborate as to what that means but says the Trump administration has been engaging with the PA and “been having good conversations with them.”

“They’ve been supportive of these efforts. Let’s see where that progresses with them,” the US official adds.

The PA had hoped to play a more substantial role in the postwar management of Gaza, but this demand was nixed by the US and Israel, which have demanded that Ramallah implement longstanding reforms. The PA argues that it has begun instituting many of those reforms but that it is hamstrung by Israel’s continued withholding of several billion dollars of its funds. After taking a more combative approach during US President Donald Trump’s first term as president, which saw Ramallah cut ties with Washington, the PA has sought to come to terms with the limited role being offered to it this term, as its leverage is limited.