A UN vehicle escorts ambulances and a bus carrying Palestinian patients in Khan Younis as they travel to the Rafah crossing to leave the Gaza Strip for medical treatment abroad, February 3, 2026
HE treatment of Palestinians attempting to use the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt amounts to “collective punishment,” Hamas said today.
Palestinians are suffering “mistreatment, abuse and deliberate extortion” at the crossing, which was opened on Monday, the resistance group said, adding that such treatment “constitutes fascist behaviour and organised terrorism” and amounts to “collective punishment.”
Hamas said: “Painful field testimonies have revealed degrading practices, including the abduction of women from among the travellers, blindfolding them, subjecting them to lengthy interrogations with irrelevant questions, threatening some with their children and attempting to extort one of them into collaborating.
“This confirms that what is happening is not ‘crossing procedures’ but rather systematic violation aimed at instilling fear and deterring people from returning to their homes,” the group added.
The long-awaited reopening of the territory’s southern border crossing with Egypt was supposed to alleviate the punishing military siege of Gaza.
But Israeli authorities have continued to enforce strict security restrictions and a complex bureaucratic process that allows only a small number of people to travel in either direction.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) confirmed that only five patients from Gaza had passed through the Rafah crossing on Monday.
Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpAKeir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.Orcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Palestinians continue their daily lives with limited resources amid the massive destruction in the Tel al Hawa neighborhood in western Gaza, following Israeli army attacks. [Saeed M. M. T. Jaras – Anadolu Agency]
A UN spokesman on Wednesday urged the full reopening of the Rafah crossing for humanitarian aid and civilian movement, as conflicting reports emerged from Israel and Egypt about whether operations at the key entry point would soon resume, Anadolu reports.
Stephane Dujarric told reporters that the UN is aware of contradictory statements—Israel suggesting the crossing would reopen soon and Egypt denying any such coordination.
“Like you, we’ve seen contradicting reports,” Dujarric said.
“What we want to see is Rafah reopened fully for the movement of humanitarian cargo, for the movements of people, and both for humanitarian workers. If residents of Gaza, Palestinians, want to leave, they need to be able to do so voluntarily and freely without any pressure. And for those residents of Gaza who may have left the enclave a while ago, if they wish to return, they should be able to return,” he added.
Dujarric underscored that any reopening hinges on coordination between Israel and Egypt but insisted that humanitarian imperatives must take precedence.
“What we think we need to see is a reopening of Rafah for humanitarian cargo to be able to go in, for humanitarian workers to go in and out, and for Palestinians who wish to leave to be able to do so freely, safely, without any pressure to do so. And for those who have left and wish to come back, and therefore, they want to come back, they should be able to come back,” he added.
Dujarric said the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) continues to receive reports that air strikes, shelling, gunfire, and other Israeli military operations are causing more civilian casualties, displacement, and destruction in the Gaza Strip.
He said things are “better than” they were before the announcement of the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
“But, you know, we’re comparing a horrific situation to an extremely challenging one, to say the least,” he added.
The Rafah border crossing in southern Gaza was scheduled to reopen last October as part of the ceasefire agreement, but it remained closed due to Israel’s non-compliance with the deal.
Since May 2024, the Israeli army has blocked the movement of Palestinians through the crossing, the territory’s only window to the outside world that was not controlled by Tel Aviv before the start of the Israeli onslaught against Gaza in October 2023.
Turning to the Israeli killing of two Palestinian children on Saturday in a drone strike in southern Gaza, Dujarric said it was “horrific to say the least.”
“It’s hard to see how two boys — 8 and 10 — can be considered a threat, and there needs to be an investigation. And accountability for what happened,” he added.
The area targeted by the strike lies within the zones the Israeli army continues to hold under the ceasefire agreement, which took effect in October.
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.Orcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.UK Labour Party government ministers Keir Starmer, Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves explain that they are partners complicit in Israel’s Gaza genocide. The UK has provided Israel with arms, military and air force support. They explain that they don’t do gas chambers but do do forced marches, starvation, destroy hospitals, mass-murders of journalists and healthcare workers.
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Israeli soldiers organize military equipment while standing on armored personnel carriers near the border with the Gaza Strip on August 6, 2025 in Southern Israel, Israel. [Amir Levy/Getty Images]
Four Israeli soldiers were injured in clashes with Hamas fighters in Rafah the southern Gaza Strip on Wednesday, the army said, Anadolu reports.
A military statement said that one of the soldiers was severely wounded, while three others sustained moderate injuries in eastern Rafah.
Channel 14 said that clashes erupted after three Palestinian fighters allegedly emerged from a tunnel in Rafah and fired anti-tank rockets at Israeli forces.
Israeli forces responded with fire from helicopters, with two fighters killed in direct fire, while a third Palestinian allegedly attached an explosive device to an Israeli armored vehicle before fleeing back into the tunnel, the channel said.
The public broadcaster KAN said an Israeli helicopter attacked the area to which the third Palestinian fled.
There was no immediate comment from Hamas on the reports.
According to Israeli media reports, there are around 200 Hamas fighters who are trapped inside underground tunnels in Rafah, and Tel Aviv has not yet responded to demands by Hamas and mediators to allow them safe passage to areas under the group’s control.
Separately, the Israeli army claimed that it had killed more than 40 Palestinian fighters over the past week in operations targeting tunnels in the area under its control in Rafah.
On Monday, US President Donald Trump asked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a phone call to clarify the crisis of the fighters trapped inside the Rafah tunnels.
According to Channel 12, Washington has attempted to reach an agreement between Israel and Hamas in recent weeks to let the fighters surrender in exchange for amnesty and a “safe corridor” to an area under Hamas control or to a third country.
“The US administration viewed this as a potential model for disarming Hamas, and it did not appreciate Israel’s refusal to cooperate with this approach,” it added.
A fragile ceasefire agreement has been in place in Gaza since Oct. 10, mediated by Türkiye, Egypt, and Qatar, backed by the US.
Phase one of the ceasefire deal includes the release of Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners. The plan also envisages the rebuilding of Gaza and the establishment of a new governing mechanism without Hamas.
Israel has killed more than 70,000 people, mostly women and children, and injured nearly 171,000 others in attacks in Gaza since October 2023.
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.Orcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.Keir Starmer justifies why he has to travel abroad so much
Olmert said Israel was already committing war crimes in Gaza and the West Bank, and constructing the camp would mark an escalation. Photograph: Quique Kierszenbaum/The Guardian
Ehud Olmert says forcing people into camp would be ethnic cleansing, and anger at Israel over Gaza war is not all down to antisemitism
The “humanitarian city” Israel’s defence minister has proposed building on the ruins of Rafah would be a concentration camp, and forcing Palestinians inside would be ethnic cleansing, Israel’s former prime minister Ehud Olmert has told the Guardian.
Israel was already committing war crimes in Gaza and the West Bank, Olmert said, and construction of the camp would mark an escalation.
“It is a concentration camp. I am sorry,” he said, when asked about the plans laid out by Israel Katz last week. Once inside, Palestinians would not be allowed to leave, except to go to other countries, Katz said.
Katz has ordered the military to start drawing up operational plans for construction of the “humanitarian city” on the ruins of southern Gaza, to house initially 600,000 people and eventually the entire Palestinian population.
“If they [Palestinians] will be deported into the new ‘humanitarian city’, then you can say that this is part of an ethnic cleansing. It hasn’t yet happened,” Olmert said. That would be “the inevitable interpretation” of any attempt to create a camp for hundreds of thousands of people, he said.
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Palestinian families begin fleeing again from shelters near the Al-Mawasi area as the Israeli army expands its ground offensive and tanks reach southwestern Khan Yunis, Gaza, marking their first displacement in nearly a year and a half, on July 10, 2025. [Hani Alshaer – Anadolu Agency]
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) condemned on Friday Israel’s plan to forcibly displace Palestinians in Gaza towards the southern city of Rafah, warning that the move would create “massive concentration camps” and worsen the humanitarian crisis, Anadolu reports.
Juliette Touma, UNRWA’s director of communications, told Al Jazeera English that the agency “categorically refuses any forced displacement of any population.”
“If it happens, it will push further tens of thousands of people who have already been displaced many, many times during this current war but also over the generations, further south and from there into the unknown,” Touma said.
“What needs to happen right now is to focus on reaching a ceasefire and allowing UNRWA to bring in much-needed supplies,” she said.
Touma said UNRWA has “over 6,000 trucks in Egypt and Jordan full of medicines that are soon expiring, food that is also going off, we have hygiene supplies.”
“All we are saying is lift the siege, get a ceasefire, allow UNRWA and other UN organizations to do our work,” she added.
Earlier, the UN raised alarm over continued mass displacement in the Gaza Strip and warned that more than 700,000 people have been uprooted since the end of the ceasefire in March.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said he instructed the army to prepare a plan to relocate all Palestinians to what he called a “humanitarian city” on the ruins of Rafah in southern Gaza.
Rejecting international calls for a ceasefire, the Israeli army has pursued a brutal offensive on the Gaza Strip since Oct. 7, 2023, killing nearly 57,800 Palestinians, most of them women and children. The relentless bombardment has destroyed the enclave and led to food shortages and a spread of disease.
Last November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.
A UN vehicle escorts ambulances and a bus carrying Palestinian patients in Khan Younis as they travel to the Rafah crossing to leave the Gaza Strip for medical treatment abroad, February 3, 2026
![Palestinian families begin fleeing again from shelters near the Al-Mawasi area as the Israeli army expands its ground offensive and tanks reach southwestern Khan Yunis, Gaza, marking their first displacement in nearly a year and a half, on July 10, 2025. [Hani Alshaer - Anadolu Agency]](https://i0.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/AA-20250710-38527688-38527676-ISRAELI_OFFENSIVE_DISPLACES_FAMILIES_IN_KHAN_YUNIS-1-1.jpg?fit=920%2C613&ssl=1)