United Arab Emirates plans to bankroll first ‘planned community’ in south Gaza

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jan/23/uae-funds-gaza-community

The United Arab Emirates plans to fund “Gaza’s first planned community” on the ruined outskirts of Rafah, Gaza’s southernmost city. Palestinian residents there will have access to basic services like education, healthcare and running water, as long as they submit to biometric data collection and security vetting, according to planning documents and people familiar with the latest round of talks at the US-led Civil Military Coordination Center in Israel.

The planned city would mark the UAE’s first investment in a postwar reconstruction project located in the part of Gaza currently held by Israel. The wealthy Gulf state has contributed more than $1.8bn of humanitarian assistance to Gaza since 7 October 2023, according to UAE state media, making it Gaza’s largest humanitarian donor.

Blueprints for the Emirati-backed endeavor are laid out in an unclassified slide deck obtained by the Guardian and first reported by Dropsite, but the UAE’s role as its planned financier has not previously been reported. The presentation was prepared for a cohort of European donors who visited the CMCC on 14 January, according to an aid official who shared details about the briefing on the condition of anonymity. Israeli military planners have given the plans their stamp of approval.

Jared Kushner, Steve Witkoff and Josh Gruenbaum, all members or advisers to the US-led Board of Peace, arrived on Friday in Abu Dhabi to broker peace talks between Russian and Ukrainian negotiators. The Gulf ally agreed to host the landmark trilateral meeting after pledging its support for several US-led efforts, including the Board of Peace.

The United Arab Emirates did not comment on its decision to endorse the Board of Peace, or its plans to fund one of the first US- and Israeli-backed reconstruction projects in Gaza.

One US official said that the first Emirati-backed compound could “become a model” for a string of residential camps that US and Israeli officials have described as “alternative safe communities”.

Within the first Rafah community, billed as a “case study”, planners envision several efforts to preventthe influence of Hamas, including the introduction of electronic shekel wallets “to mitigate the diversion of goods and funds to the Hamas financial channels”, and a school curriculum that will “not be Hamas-based”, but supplied by the UAE. Planners also specify that residents will be permitted to “enter and exit the neighborhood freely, subject to security checks to prevent the introduction of weapons and hostile elements”.


https://uploads.guim.co.uk/2026/01/22/CB_gaza-civil-governance_combined.pdf

How dystopian can you get. This is like residential schools for whole families. Meanwhile UAE is behind the genocide in Sudan as well as destabilizing Yemen. UAE is a stooge for Israel and the US, now planning to build model concentration camps in Rafah.

Plans do not indicate who will conduct security checks at the entry and exit points of the planned community. Any new residential compounds will be built atop of the rubble left from Israel’s two-year war on Gaza – an assault that has killed more than 70,000 Palestinians and leveled three-quarters of the structures in Gaza amid Israel’s efforts to rout out Hamas militants after their deadly 7 October attack.

‘New Rafah'

Under the terms of Trump’s brokered peace agreement, Gaza is now divided into two halves: a “green zone”, controlled by the Israeli military; and a “red zone”, in effect governed by Hamas. Initial reconstruction efforts are only slated for the Israeli-held half of Gaza.

Kushner dispensed with the artificial red zone and green zone divisions during a presentation at Davos on Thursday, where he unveiled Board of Peace ambitions to redevelop Gaza’s entire Mediterranean coast. On a slide titled “master plan”, Kushner’s group re-envisioned a map of Gaza featuring eight “residential areas” spanning Gaza, including two development blocks called Rafah 1 and Rafah 2.

The first city, called “New Rafah” in the Board of Peace slide deck, would be built during an early phase of Trump’s 20-point peace plan. The Board of Peace plans promise 100,000 permanent housing units, 200 education centers and 75 medical facilities in the new city.

A White House spokesperson said that the Emirati-backed compound would be built during the board’s initial reconstruction push. Land-clearing efforts for the Rafah site are already under way, an Israel Defense Forces spokesperson told the Guardian.

aka further destroying whatever is left of Rafah...

“Israel’s mission on the east side of the yellow line is to clear the infrastructure in that territory, including tunnels, booby-trapped houses – all of the infrastructure left on our side,” the IDF spokesperson said.

...

Daniel Levy, a former Israeli peace negotiator, expressed skepticism that the Emirati-backed compound would ever be built, but said that, either way, the plans serve Israel’s political goals.

“Without one brick being laid, it gives a further layer of permission to Israel clearing the area, and displacing or killing Palestinians in the process,” Levy said.

The Emirates’ participation allows Israel to insist that construction is proceeding with the support of an Arab state, Levy added.

“It distracts from the fact that Israel occupies 58% of Gaza because this portion of Gaza they will attempt to label as ‘happy Gaza’, with schools and a judiciary and hospitals,” Levy said.

...

Muhammad Shehada, a visiting Middle East fellow for the European Council on Foreign Relations, said that reconstruction planners at the CMCC seem to be operating under the assumption that Palestinians will leave the Hamas-controlled red zone and move into newly constructed communities “if you dump enough food there”.

He said that those tactics may not work and overlooked the politics of the area, which he said “did not interest” military planners.

To move into the Emirati compound, Palestinians living in the “red zone” will have to cross an Israeli checkpoint into the “green zone”. Next, they will be subjected to “security vetting” and “biometric documentation”. The plans do not specify who would complete the vetting or manage biometric data collection, nor do they articulate why someone would be turned away.

Palestinians approved for entry will use their Palestinian ID numbers, as issued by the Palestinian Authority in coordination with Israel’s COGAT, the Israeli agency charged with administration of Gaza, to join the community registry, planning documents say.

...

“As far as Israel is concerned, if Gaza ends up with four or so model Palestinian communities of say 25,000 each, all of them vetted, and everything else is a hellscape where you’re further encouraging the ethnic cleansing, or the physical removal of Palestinians from there, that’s a desirable outcome.”


It's a plan to build 'humanitarian' concentration camps. And don't be fooled this is not just an experiment for Gaza to control Palestinians. Gaza and the West Bank are testing grounds for human population control. Every part of your life controlled, every move/post followed/observed, your only means government controlled digital money while being fed government controlled propaganda. 

Welcome to the future of humanity, it's already here. AI is the means to make George Orwell's 1984 a reality.

Gaza’s tent life between illness and daily despair


_{A rubbish dump near the makeshift tents of displaced Palestinians in Gaza City}

The Abu Amr family have been displaced more than 17 times since Israel’s war on Gaza began. Each move has narrowed their options. Now, they are living in a tent pitched beside a sprawling rubbish dump in the Remal area of central Gaza City – one of the few remaining places where they could find space.

For the family, survival has become a daily struggle against pollution, illness and indignity.

“We always say that we live in two wars in Gaza, one that kills with bombing, and one that is from rubbish,” said Saada Abu Amr, 64, who was displaced from Beit Lahiya and is now living in Gaza City. “I have an asthma attack, and the inhaler is always with me. I put it under the pillow at night. I use it several times at night as the smell of the waste blocks my breathing airway.”

Her daughter-in-law, Suryya Abu Amr, a 35-year-old mother of five, said basic hygiene has become nearly impossible.

“We use cleaning materials, but we can’t keep spending all we have on cleaning; things never become clean in a tent near a waste area, especially with the lack of water,” she told Al Jazeera. “We get infected with gastroenteritis several times a month.”

“I was almost dying once with gastroenteritis; they told me at the hospital it was because of poor sanitation,” she added, describing how she had been forced to use toilets shared between dozens of people.

It wasn’t always this way. Before the war, Suryya said, cleanliness was central to her daily life. “I used to clean my house several times a day. Before the war, I was someone who was obsessed with cleaning. I never imagined that I would live this nightmare.”

Health crisis

Health professionals warn that the accumulation of waste, sewage and the lack of clean water are driving a surge in disease.

“The public health situation in Gaza is disastrous; we see viral and bacterial infections with severe complications that we haven’t seen or dealt with before the war,” said Dr Ahmed Alrabiei, consultant internist and pulmonologist and head of the pulmonology department at al-Shifa Medical Complex.

“There is an increase in Guillain-Barre syndrome, cases of meningitis, severe gastroenteritis, weakened immune systems, respiratory infections, Hepatitis A and asthma. There were suspected cases of cholera, but thankfully, no cases were recorded,” he told Al Jazeera.

“The groups most affected by these conditions are young children under two years, the elderly, and those with chronic diseases such as diabetes and high blood pressure, those with autoimmune diseases such as lupus, kidney disease, and cancer patients,” he said.

Hospitals, he added, are operating far beyond capacity. “The pressure on hospitals is too much; the beds’ capacity here is 150 percent overwhelmed. In the chest department, we have 20 beds with more than 40 cases. Patients are in the rooms and corridors, which will also increase the chances of spreading the infections among people.”

“There is a lack of medications, antibiotics and medical equipment needed for diagnosis, which leads to late treatment for many cases,” Alrabiei said.

Gaza City is facing what municipal officials describe as one of its gravest humanitarian and environmental crises, following the near-total collapse of water and sanitation infrastructure caused by Israeli attacks.


Wastewater flooded the public toilets in a school used as a shelter in Gaza City

“More than 150,000 metres of pipes and approximately 85 percent of the water wells inside Gaza City were destroyed, in addition to the complete destruction of the water desalination plant,” said Ahmed Driemly, head of public relations at Gaza Municipality.

Solid waste has also piled up across the city after Israeli forces blocked access to Gaza’s main landfill in the east.

“More than 700,000 tonnes of solid waste are piling up in the Gaza Strip, including more than 350,000 tonnes inside Gaza City alone,” said Husni Muhanna, spokesperson for Gaza Municipality.

“This has forced the municipality to establish a temporary landfill on the land of the historic Firas Market, turning the area into a health and environmental disaster, with the spread of insects and rodents and the leakage of wastewater into the groundwater tank, especially with the rainfall,” he added.

Municipal officials say they are operating under extreme constraints. “The Gaza municipality faces a complex set of obstacles that prevent it from fully resuming its services,” Muhanna said, citing the destruction of machinery, fuel shortages, restrictions on heavy equipment, security risks and the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people.

“The Gaza Municipality operates according to a limited emergency plan that falls short of a comprehensive plan,” he said. “Interventions are limited to opening storm drains using primitive means; the Gaza Municipality is no longer able to carry out periodic maintenance of water and sewage networks, rehabilitate roads, or manage waste in accordance with health standards.”

US envoys discuss reopening of Rafah crossing with Netanyahu as two killed in Gaza

Israeli fire killed two Palestinians in the Tuffah neighbourhood in eastern Gaza City on Sunday, and an Israeli drone wounded four others in a separate incident in Gaza City, local health authorities said.

Medical workers said an Israeli drone exploded on the rooftop of a multi-floor building in Gaza City, wounding four civilians in the street nearby.

Meanwhile, US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to reopen the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt during talks in Jerusalem, Israeli media reported Sunday.

Israeli news site Ynet reported, citing an unnamed Israeli official, that while the meeting between Netanyahu, Witkoff and Kushner was "positive", Witkoff pressed Israel to reopen Rafah even before Hamas returns the remains of the last Israeli captive believed to be held in Gaza. The group says it is searching for the body amid the rubble.

Separately, a source at al-Shifa Hospital reported that several Palestinians were wounded when Israeli forces struck a building in the al-Rimal neighborhood, west of Gaza City.

According to Palestinian media, Israeli warplanes carried out four airstrikes on al-Tuffah since early Sunday morning. Israeli forces also detonated a booby-trapped vehicle near al-Batsh Cemetery, east of the neighborhood, causing further damage.

In northern Gaza, Israeli military vehicles opened heavy fire east of Jabaliya refugee camp, while Israeli artillery shelled multiple areas of the town, according to local reports.

This is Gaza now and the world is silent. pic.twitter.com/tNCbM0SeDI

— Mohamad Safa (@mhdksafa) January 24, 2026

Escalation in Khan Yunis

In the southern Gaza Strip, Israeli forces intensified military operations in eastern Khan Yunis, particularly in the town of Bani Suheila, where residents reported sustained artillery bombardment and active troop movements.

Al-Jazeera correspondent Rami Abu Ta‘eima said Israeli forces carried out widespread demolition and blasting operations, destroying residential buildings and entire housing blocks east of Khan Yunis.

Bulldozers were seen leveling neighborhoods, while Israeli forces established new military positions and observation towers in the area. Residents said Bani Suheila, which remains under Israeli military control, has been subjected to continuous shelling and systematic destruction of homes.

Earlier, Israeli occupation forces detonated a robotic device near al-Awda Hospital in northern Gaza, causing extensive damage to the facility and sparking a fire in a warehouse storing medicines and medical supplies, according to medical staff.

Footage showed thick smoke rising from the area following the explosion. Hospital officials warned that repeated targeting near medical facilities further threatens Gaza’s already crippled healthcare system.

Gaza is not a real estate prospectus

The glossy vision of presidential adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner treats Gaza not as a traumatised society emerging from catastrophic violence, but as a blank investment canvas for luxury housing, commercial zones, data hubs, beachfront promenades, and aspirational gross domestic product (GDP) targets.

It reads less like a recovery plan and more like a real-estate prospectus. Development language replaces political reality. Sleek presentations replace rights. Markets replace justice.

But Gaza is not a failed start-up looking for venture capital. It is home to more than two million Palestinians who have endured siege, displacement, repeated wars, and chronic insecurity for decades. Reconstruction cannot succeed if it is detached from their lived experiences or if it treats Gaza primarily as an economic asset open to speculative investment, including by extreme Zionists, rather than as a human community struggling to preserve its identity and social fabric.

A glaring flaw of Trump’s plan is the systematic exclusion of Palestinians themselves from shaping the vision of their future. These plans are unveiled in elite conference halls, not debated with the people whose neighbourhoods have been flattened.

Without Palestinian ownership, legitimacy collapses. Experience from Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere has shown repeatedly that reconstruction imposed from the outside — however well branded — reproduces the very power imbalances that fuel instability in the first place.

Equally troubling is the plan’s deliberate avoidance of addressing the root causes of Gaza’s suffering: occupation, blockade, and military control. You cannot rebuild sustainably while continuing to preserve and fund the machinery that repeatedly destroys what is built.

No amount of concrete, branding, or foreign investment can substitute for political resolution. A territory that remains militarily besieged, economically sealed, and politically subjugated will never achieve durable recovery.

Prosperity cannot flourish inside a cage. The European Union learned this lesson the hard way through multiple reconstruction cycles it funded in Gaza, which may help explain why none of its members rushed to join the board, despite being able to afford the permanent membership fee and despite the political incentives of cultivating a more cordial relationship with Trump in light of the war in Ukraine and his threats on Greenland.

Aiding Israel’s military control through spatial redesign

There is also a serious risk that the proposed physical design of Gaza would entrench Israeli military strategy rather than restore Palestinian life. The plans envision buffer zones, segmented districts, and so-called “green spaces and corridors” that would break up the territory internally.

This kind of spatial engineering would facilitate surveillance, control, and rapid military access. Urban planning would become security architecture. Civilian geography would turn into militarised space. What is sold as modernisation would constitute a sophisticated system of containment, just like the illegal settlement networks and road systems in the occupied West Bank.

The emphasis on reclaiming land from the sea using rubble may repeat the problems of Beirut’s reconstruction after the civil war, where newly reclaimed areas attracted disproportionate investment because they were free of unresolved ownership claims, ultimately allowing elites to appropriate the city’s waterfront and pull it away from public use.

The demographic implications of the plan are equally profound. Shifting Gaza’s population centre southward — closer to Egypt and further from Israel’s settlements — would quietly alter the political and social centre of gravity of Palestinian life.

It may ease Israeli security anxieties, but it would do so at the expense of Palestinian continuity, identity, and territorial coherence. Population engineering under the banner of reconstruction raises serious ethical concerns and risks externalising Gaza’s long-term humanitarian burden onto neighbouring states. This may also help explain Egypt’s absence from the signing ceremony and its decision to limit participation to its intelligence leadership.

No amount of political theatre can replace freedom

The Board of Peace itself also deserves careful scrutiny. Its branding suggests neutrality and collective stewardship, yet its political framing remains highly personalised around Trump, with little clarity about how it is meant to operate in practice.

This is not the kind of multilateral peacebuilding mechanism envisaged by United Nations Security Council Resolution 2803 of November 2025; it is political theatre. Peace mechanisms anchored in personalities rather than institutions and international law rarely survive political change.

At the heart of all this lies a familiar but dangerous assumption: that economic growth can substitute for political rights. History teaches the opposite. People do not resist simply because they are poor; they resist because they lack dignity, security, freedom of expression, and self-determination. No master plan can bypass these realities. No skyline can compensate for political exclusion.

This does not mean Gaza must wait for the perfect peace before rebuilding. Recovery must proceed urgently. But rebuilding must empower Palestinians rather than redesign their constraints. It must dismantle systems of control, not embed them into concrete and zoning maps. It must confront the political roots of destruction rather than cosmetically repackage its aftermath.

Until those foundations exist, the Board of Peace and Kushner’s vision risk becoming exactly what they resemble — a form of sandcastle diplomacy: impressive to the global public, comforting to elites, and destined to wash away when the first serious wave of political reality arrives.

Belgium Bans Transit of Arms to Israel

Earlier on Saturday, Belgium announced the issuance of a royal decree banning the stopover and transit of aircraft carrying military equipment destined for Israel, citing its obligations under international law.

Belgium’s Foreign Ministry said the decision aims to prevent any contribution to the worsening situation in the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank. A spokesperson said Belgium has also halted the export and transfer of weapons that could be used against Palestinians.

The move comes amid large-scale demonstrations across Belgium in solidarity with Palestinians, with some protests drawing tens of thousands of participants.

Belgian officials have previously criticized the European Union’s failure to take unified action against Israel’s war on Gaza, warning that the bloc’s credibility on human rights and international law is at stake.

Dozens supporting Palestine hunger strikers arrested at London prison

Eighty-six people have been arrested in the United Kingdom after gathering at a London prison in support of a Palestine Action-linked activist on hunger strike, who is being held there, police say.

London’s Metropolitan Police wrote on X late on Saturday that officers were dispatched to Prison Wormwood Scrubs, where protesters “refused to leave the grounds when ordered to do so”.

Inside Wormwood Scrubs is Umer Khalid, a 22-year-old pro-Palestine activist who stopped eating 16 days ago. He had been on hunger strike since November, briefly pausing in December due to severe ill health.

The group “allegedly blocked prison staff from entering and leaving, threatened police officers and a number managed to get inside a staff entrance area of a prison building”, the police said.

Videos of the incident verified by Al Jazeera show police officers shoving protesters to the ground and handcuffing them as shouts ring out in the background. Two groups of police also appeared to kettle protesters – a police tactic that involves officers surrounding and closing in on a group of demonstrators in an effort to contain them.

“Why are you assaulting me?” a woman can be heard asking at one point. Those arrested were detained under suspicion of aggravated trespass, the police said.

Ongoing hunger strikes

Khalid told Al Jazeera last week that he planned to escalate his hunger strike to exclude all fluids starting on Saturday, the day of the protest.

After speaking with him on Monday by phone, Khalid’s mother, Shabana Khalid, told Al Jazeera that a prison guard remains outside his cell in case he needs urgent medical attention. She added that he is also being monitored closely with hourly medical observations.

Aside from Umer Khalid, seven other protesters have been involved in rolling hunger strikes since November.

Khalid became the only one still refusing food after three members of the group ended their protests this month. They said one of their demands had been met after a UK-based subsidiary of the Israeli weapons company Elbit Systems was denied a UK government contract.

“Our prisoners’ hunger strike will be remembered as a landmark moment of pure defiance; an embarrassment for the British state,” the Prisoners for Palestine Group said.

Two of the prisoners who concluded their hunger strikes, Heba Muraisi and Kamran Ahmed, were on the brink of death after more than two months without food. Still, Muraisi told Al Jazeera in the days before the announcement that she felt “it’s important to fight for justice and for freedom”.

The group’s list of demands includes bail, the right to a fair trial and the de-proscription of Palestine Action as well as for Elbit sites to be closed in the UK. They’re also seeking an end to what they call censorship in prison, accusing authorities of withholding mail, calls, books and visitation rights.

Before starting to refuse liquids on Saturday, Umer Khalid told Al Jazeera: “The only thing that seems to have any impact, whether that is positive or negative, is drastic action.”

“The strike reflects the severity of this imprisonment,” he added. “Being in this prison is not living life. Our lives have been paused. The world spins, and we sit in a concrete room. This strike reflects the severity of my demands.”

Israeli forces kill Palestinian man in occupied West Bank

Israeli forces have fatally shot a Palestinian man north of Ramallah, the Palestinian Ministry of Health says, as Israel escalates its violence in the occupied West Bank in tandem with its genocidal war in Gaza.

The ministry identified the victim on Sunday as Ammar Hijazi, 34, from Nablus. Wafa, the official Palestinian news agency, said Hijazi was shot while driving a vehicle.

Separately, the Israeli military detained a child in the village of Mukhmas in the central West Bank, according to Wafa.

Israeli soldiers and settlers have been intensifying their attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank with Israel expanding its settlements in the territory, which are illegal under international law.

Settlers, who assaulted a Palestinian family and injured a woman near Hebron on Sunday, have been emboldened by the far-right government and have been rampaging across Palestinian lands with impunity, often with the military’s backing, killing and injuring civilians and destroying their property.

Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir this week approved the issuance of gun licences to Israelis in 18 additional settlements in the West Bank as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government pushes to expand illegal outposts that undermine prospects for a two-state solution.

Welcome to Techno Tyranny Where You'll Own Nothing

Trump faces major blow at home as flights stop operations fearing Iran invasion

Just when Donald Trump was believed to be preparing to carry out military strikes against Iran, another US citizen has died in yet another ICE shooting in Minnesota. This would no doubt compound his domestic problems. The news of the Minnesota shooting came on a day several Europeans airlines announced suspension of flights to Tel Aviv and Dubai in anticipation of military strikes on Iran. Rifat Jawaid asks why UN Human Rights Council is silent the violations of human rights in Minneapolis as he analyses the Iran situation..

Yanis Varoufakis: The Imperial "Board of Peace" & End of the United Nations

Yanis Varoufakis is an economist, the former Finance Minister of Greece, and the author of numerous bestselling books. Yanis Varoufakis discusses the imperialist nature of Trump's 'Board of Peace', and why it will dissolve the UN and international law.

Lebanon still gets bombed as well

Zionist Rampage North of Litani River: 80 Families Displaced

Laith Marouf is joined by Ali Jezzini, alMayadeen’s Military Analyst, to survey multiple locations attacked by the Zionists north of the Litany River in South Lebanon. The attacks were all directed towards civilian homes and businesses as a punishment for the stedfast Lebanese people, to increase pressure on HIzbullah, and to help the Collaborationist regime in Beirut disarm the Resistance without having to confront it themselves.

We're all Palestinian couldn't ring more true today. DHS uses the same tactics as Israel uses to dehumanize Palestinians and excuse murder, now being directed at Alex Pretti. And ofcourse DHS will 'investigate' themselves, just like the IDF 'investigates' itself.

Trump faces uncertain future after ICE shooting; gets stark warning from Iran

The death of Minneapolis nurse, Alex Pretti, has brought Donald Trump’s political future under huge scrutiny. As Rifat Jawaid argues, the latest victim was a US citizen and worked as a nurse with military veterans. His death has caused quite an anger across the US.

This coincided with fresh warnings from Iran which unveiled a mural painting in Tehran with warnings that any future military strikes would have monumental consequences the American forces.

https://www.startribune.com/fact-check-federal-officials-claims-about-fatal-minneapolis-shooting/601570444

Hamas gives ‘all information’ on whereabouts of last captive’s body

Hamas’s armed wing says it provided ceasefire mediators with “all the details and information in our possession regarding the location of the captive’s body”.

The Qassam Brigades was referring to the remains of Ran Gvili, the last captive to be returned to Israel under the October 2025 US-brokered truce agreement. Israel announced it would allow a “limited reopening” of the Rafah border crossing between southern Gaza and Egypt once it recovered Gvili’s body.

World leaders and aid agencies have repeatedly pleaded with Israel to allow more humanitarian convoys through Rafah and other Gaza crossings. The blockaded Palestinian territory has been devastated by more than two years of war and depends on the inflow of essential medical equipment, food, water, and other supplies.

Concerns abound whether Israel will allow Palestinians to return to Gaza

The Rafah crossing is Gaza’s window to the world. It is the only access point through which Palestinians can enter and leave Gaza – and so it’s vital.

The Israeli government has explicitly said it does not want to allow the large number of Palestinians stuck outside Gaza to enter. There are no guarantees that those who leave can re-enter.

The thousands of babies born since October 2023 have not been registered, so Israel doesn’t recognise them, and they don’t have national ID numbers, which is another problem for those who want to return and have had children in the past two years.

There are many hurdles and challenges ahead here. And remember, there are thousands of people who need to be evacuated from Gaza for medical treatment. Those will be the most urgent cases.

Israeli army searches for captive’s remains in northern Gaza

The ending of phase one of the ceasefire and the reopening of the Rafah crossing now depend on the search for the remains of Ran Gvili, an Israeli police officer whose body was taken to Gaza.

Hamas said it provided Israel with information on his possible whereabouts. The Israeli army said it is searching the northern Gaza Strip “in the area of the yellow line“. Al Jazeera’s fact-checking agency found the Israeli military is searching in a cemetery in the eastern part of Gaza City.

Israel frames Rafah opening as a Trump administration ‘concession’

The Israeli government is marketing the opening of Rafah as a concession to the Trump administration, even though the Gaza ceasefire agreement stated the crossing must be opened and it wasn’t tied to the return of all the captives.

Israel has put its foot down and said that is not going to happen.

And now, even with the possible location of the last body identified, it is saying that it will open but with heavy restrictions and, without pre-screening by Israeli authorities, nobody is going to be able to leave or enter Gaza.

As for the entry of aid through Rafah, American officials have visited and allegedly applied pressure on Israel, but that hasn’t yielded any results. But the Trump administration needs a win, and Rafah would be just that.

Israel’s Ben-Gvir decries ‘naive’ Trump envoys over Rafah opening

Israel’s far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, has criticised US President Donald Trump’s truce brokers for demanding the opening of the Rafah crossing for Palestinians aiming to leave and enter the war-battered Gaza Strip.

Rafah’s opening is part of the ceasefire deal US adviser Jared Kushner and special envoy Steve Witkoff helped broker between Hamas and Israel.

“We still haven’t completely eliminated Hamas. We have to dismantle and disarm it. Enough with Kushner and Witkoff’s naivety – if Rafah crossing opens, it will be a big mistake and a very bad message,” Ben-Gvir was quoted as saying by the Israeli news website Walla.

Ben-Gvir is a key member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet, and his hardline party forms a broader right-wing coalition, keeping the current government together. He’s known for taking extreme positions while promoting “Greater Israel”, and has been sanctioned by several Western countries.

Israel says it will have ‘full oversight mechanism’ over Rafah crossing

Israel says it will allow a “limited reopening” of the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt once it recovers the remains of the last captive in the Palestinian territory.

Reopening Rafah, a vital entry point for aid into Gaza, forms part of a truce framework announced by Trump last October, but the crossing has remained closed, with Israel blocking vital aid and equipment.

“As part of President Trump’s 20-point plan, Israel has agreed to open the Rafah crossing on a limited basis for the passage of people only, with a full Israeli oversight mechanism,” Netanyahu’s office said in a post on X.

“The opening of the crossing is conditioned on the return of all living hostages and the execution of 100% effort on the part of Hamas to locate and return all deceased hostages.”

Hamas said it provided “all information” it has on the possible location of the last captive’s body in Gaza.

EU mission, Gaza officials to conduct Rafah border exit inspections: Report

Exits through the Rafah crossing won’t be subject to direct Israeli security inspection, but rather monitoring by a European Union mission and Palestinian officials, a media report says.

The inspectors will “operate on behalf of the Palestinian Authority” while “Israeli supervision of the exit process will be limited to remote monitoring only”, said Israeli Army Radio.

However, “those entering the Gaza Strip will then be transferred through a special corridor established in an area under Israeli control, where they will undergo inspection by Israeli security agencies to prevent the smuggling of prohibited means or the entry of unauthorised persons”, it reported.

The number of people permitted to cross has not yet been determined, “but estimates indicate a few hundred daily, according to the crossing’s capacity and inspection procedures”, the report said.

It's a crossing between Egypt and Gaza, legally Israel has nothing to do with it...