The Defense Ministry said on Thursday that preparations were ongoing with Egypt to open the Rafah border crossing in the southern Gaza Strip for the movement of people, with the date to be announced at a later stage, but stressed that aid would not pass through the major gateway.

Israel had earlier warned it may keep Rafah shut and reduce aid into the Palestinian enclave, saying the Hamas terror group was returning the bodies of dead hostages too slowly, underlining the risks to a ceasefire that halted two years of devastating war and saw all living hostages held by Hamas released.

A schedule for opening the crossing to pedestrian traffic will be announced “once the Israeli side, together with the Egyptian side, completes the necessary preparations for the crossing’s opening,” said a statement from COGAT, the Defense Ministry body that oversees civil affairs in the Palestinian territories.

COGAT said humanitarian aid continued to enter the territory via the Kerem Shalom crossing with Israel, and at other crossings.

“It should be emphasized that humanitarian aid will not pass through the Rafah crossing. This was never agreed upon at any stage,” COGAT said in its statement.

Aid from Gaza coming via Egypt generally waits at the Rafah crossing before being diverted to the Nitzana or Kerem Shalom crossings from Israel,........

© The Times of Israel