Israel has announced it will open the key Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt in the coming days to allow Palestinians to leave the territory.
Israeli military body Cogat said exits would be "facilitated through co-ordination with Egypt, following security approval by Israel and under the supervision of the European Union mission".Â
It added that this would be "similar to the mechanism that operated in January", when the crossing opened during a previous ceasefire.
An Israeli security official said it was an expression of Israel's support for the current ceasefire with Hamas, which began seven weeks ago.
However, Egypt denied it was co-ordinating with Israel to reopen the Rafah crossing under Trump's 20-point Gaza peace plan.
The State Information Service cited an official Egyptian source as saying that "if an agreement is reached to open the crossing, it will be in both directions, to enter and exit the Gaza Strip, in accordance with the plan of US President Donald Trump".
The crossing has been mostly closed since May 2024 before then, it was the main exit point for Palestinians allowed to leave during the conflict and a key entry point for humanitarian aid.
At least 16,500 severely ill or injured Palestinians in need of lifesaving medical treatment abroad are currently waiting to be evacuated from Gaza, according to the World Health Organization.Â
It says only 235 patients, almost all of them children, have been evacuated via crossings with Israel since the ceasefire took effect in October.
Palestinian Authority (PA) forces would assist in operating the reopened Rafah crossing alongside the EU's Border Assistance Mission.
European sources say Palestinian representatives had also helped during the previous ceasefire but without wearing PA insignia due to "Israeli sensitivity" over their presence in Gaza.Â
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ruled out any role in the future governance of the territory for the Palestinian Authority, which governs parts of the occupied West Bank.
Under the first phase of the ceasefire deal, which took effect on 10 October, Hamas agreed to return the 20 living Israeli hostages and the bodies of the 28 dead Israeli and foreign hostages still in Gaza within 72 hours.
All the living hostages were released on 13 October in exchange for 250 Palestinian prisoners and 1,718 detainees from Gaza.
So far, the remains of 23 dead Israeli hostages have been handed over, along with those of three foreign hostages – one of them Thai, one Nepalese and one Tanzanian. In exchange, Israel has handed over the bodies of 345 Palestinians killed during the war.
The two dead hostages still in Gaza were among the 251 people abducted by Hamas and its allies on 7 October 2023, when about 1,200 other people were killed.
Israel responded to the attack by launching a military campaign in Gaza, during which more than 70,100 people have been killed, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry
