This image taken from a place on the Israeli border with the Gaza Strip, exhibits an Israeli armoured personnel carriers driving alongside the separation barrier on August 20, 2025.
Ahmad Gharabli | AFP | Getty Photographs
The Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt will stay closed till additional discover, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu mentioned on Saturday, including its reopening will rely upon Hamas handing over the our bodies of deceased hostages as the 2 sides continued to commerce blame over ceasefire violations.
Netanyahu’s assertion got here shortly after the Palestinian embassy in Egypt introduced that the Rafah crossing, the principle gateway for Gazans to depart and enter the enclave, would reopen on Monday for entry into Gaza.
Netanyahu’s authorities and Hamas have been buying and selling blame over violations of the U.S.-mediated ceasefire for days. Late on Saturday in Washington, the State Division mentioned it had acquired “credible studies indicating an imminent ceasefire violation by Hamas in opposition to the folks of Gaza.”
The State Division mentioned the deliberate assault in opposition to Palestinian civilians can be a “direct and grave violation of the ceasefire settlement.”
“Ought to Hamas proceed with this assault, measures can be taken to guard the folks of Gaza and protect the integrity of the ceasefire,” the division mentioned in an announcement, with out offering additional particulars.
Hamas denied on Sunday accusations of an “imminent assault” or a “violation” of the ceasefire.
It accused Israeli authorities of forming, arming and funding “felony gangs” that carried out murders, kidnappings and aided looting.
The Palestinian militant group mentioned police forces in Gaza have been performing their obligation by pursuing these gangs to carry them accountable.
“The motion calls on the U.S. administration to cease repeating the occupation’s deceptive narrative,” it added.
Trump had mentioned he would contemplate permitting Israeli forces to renew preventing in Gaza if Hamas fails to uphold its finish of the ceasefire deal that he brokered.
The militant group has launched a safety crackdown in city areas vacated by Israeli forces, demonstrating its energy via public executions and clashes with native armed clans.
Dispute over support, return of our bodies
Hamas, in an announcement late on Saturday, mentioned Netanyahu’s resolution “constitutes a blatant violation of the ceasefire settlement and a repudiation of the commitments he made to the mediators and guarantor events.”
It additionally mentioned the continued closure of the Rafah crossing would stop the entry of apparatus wanted to seek for and find extra hostage our bodies underneath the rubble, and would thus delay the restoration and handover of the stays.
Israel mentioned it acquired two extra our bodies late on Saturday, which means 12 out of 28 our bodies have been handed over underneath a U.S.-brokered ceasefire and hostage deal agreed between Israel and Hamas final week.
The battle has induced a humanitarian disaster in Gaza, with almost all inhabitants pushed from their houses, a worldwide starvation monitor confirming famine and well being authorities overwhelmed.
The dispute over the return of our bodies, and shipments of life-saving humanitarian support, underlines the fragility of the ceasefire and nonetheless has the potential to upset the deal together with different main points which are included in U.S. President Donald Trump’s 20-point plan to finish the battle.
As a part of the deal, Hamas launched all 20 residing Israeli hostages it had been holding for 2 years, in return for nearly 2,000 Palestinian detainees and convicted prisoners jailed in Israel.
Formidable obstacles to peace
However Israel says that Hamas has been too sluggish handy over the our bodies of deceased hostages it nonetheless holds. The militant group says that finding a few of the our bodies amid the huge destruction in Gaza will take time.
The deal requires Israel to return 360 our bodies of Palestinian militants for the deceased Israeli hostages and thus far it has handed over 15 our bodies in return for every Israeli physique it has acquired.
Rafah has largely been shut since Might 2024. The ceasefire deal additionally contains the ramping up of support into the enclave, the place a whole lot of hundreds of individuals have been decided in August to be affected by famine, in line with the IPC world starvation monitor.
After reducing off all provides for 11 weeks in March, Israel elevated support into Gaza in July, scaling it up additional for the reason that ceasefire.
Round 560 metric tons of meals had entered Gaza per day on common for the reason that U.S.-brokered truce, however this was nonetheless properly under the dimensions of want, in line with the U.N. World Meals Programme.
Formidable obstacles to Trump’s plan to finish the battle nonetheless stay. Key questions of the Hamas disarming, the governance of Gaza, the make-up of a world “stabilization drive”, and strikes in direction of the creation of a Palestinian state have but to be resolved.
