After a first trial phase on Sunday, the passage will be open from Monday, COGAT, Israel's coordination authority, has announced, among others.
But the AP news agency's dispatch noted on Monday afternoon that no travelers had yet been allowed through.
20,000 waiting
Rafah is seen as the Palestinian Gaza Strip's most important link to the outside world, as it is the only border crossing that does not border Israel. But now that's only partly true, as Israel has stationed forces in the so-called Philadelphia Corridor during the war, a narrow buffer zone between the Gaza Strip and Egypt. In addition, during the first phase of the ceasefire, Israel has so far only withdrawn from about half of the Gaza Strip - so anyone who wants to get between Egypt and Palestinian-controlled Gaza needs to travel through several kilometres held by the Israeli military.
Sources told Israeli media that Israel continues to control everything and everyone who passes through. Egyptian sources also state that a maximum of 50 Palestinians in urgent need of medical care will be released per day. They will be allowed to bring two relatives each, meaning a cap of 150 people released daily.
This can be compared to the estimated 20,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip waiting for medical evacuation, according to the BBC, Just clearing that queue would take over a year at the current rate.
Closed for goods
50 people will be allowed into the Gaza Strip from the Egyptian side per day. But all travelers, in both directions, will undergo strict security checks. And despite the long-awaited arrival of large amounts of aid in trucks on the Egyptian side, Rafah will remain completely closed to goods, Israel says.
The EU is also involved, in the form of the border monitoring operation EUBAM. Personnel from there will handle Palestinian border work, as the previously ruling Islamist group Hamas will no longer be allowed to govern the Gaza Strip.
Some Palestinians are hopeful this is just the first step at Rafah.
"We hope this stops Israel's excuses and opens the border crossing," Gazan Abd al-Rahman Radwan, whose mother needs cancer treatment abroad, told the AP.
