After a long hiatus, ambulances operated by the Egyptian Red Crescent entered the Rafah crossing yesterday, as part of preparations for its official opening today. It was a trial run. Over the past 24 hours, hospitals in northern Sinai have also been preparing to receive wounded and sick Palestinians from Gaza, the first to be allowed to exit via the Rafah crossing.
At the same time, European inspection teams and Palestinian staff arrived at the site. According to Arab sources, these were representatives of the Palestinian Authority. Both groups dealt with technical matters ahead of the opening day.
The Rafah crossing is set to open in a limited format, for the movement of people only. During the pilot phase, no supplies or goods will enter through Rafah. Instead, they will continue to pass into Israel and from there through the border crossings with the Gaza Strip. Senior Egyptian officials have signaled their intention to push for allowing goods and supplies to pass through Rafah as well. Diaa Rashwan, head of Egypt's State Information Service, said that "aid to the Gaza Strip is not arriving at the required level."
Despite the various security and oversight measures, including a checkpoint controlled by the Israel Defense Forces on the Gaza side, cameras, sensors and inspection authority granted to the European team, concerns about smuggling remain. The Rafah crossing has previously operated under different monitoring mechanisms, none of which succeeded in preventing the smuggling of weapons and military equipment, or the departure of senior Hamas figures abroad before the war.
In the past, Hamas has used the closure of the Rafah crossing to claim that a "siege" was imposed on the Gaza Strip, despite the continued entry of supplies and goods from the Israeli side on most days of the war. The same claim was made when Egypt closed the crossing due to its opposition to Israeli control over it, or in response to Hamas' takeover of Gaza in 2007.
Over the past day, Hamas has signaled that it has no intention of giving up the most useful lie in its arsenal. The terrorist organization called on mediators to monitor Israel's conduct so that Gaza would not face a "renewal of the siege by other means." In other words, even when the supposed "symbol of the siege" is removed, a siege can still be fabricated out of thin air.
As expected, the terrorist organization complained about Israel's decision to link the return of the final fallen hostage, Sgt. Ran Gvili, of blessed memory, to the opening of the Rafah crossing, a step that was supposedly meant to take place in the first phase of the ceasefire agreement. What Hamas "forgot" to mention is that it had committed to returning all living hostages and the bodies of the deceased within 72 hours. In practice, the living hostages were returned within the time frame stipulated in the agreement, but the process of returning the bodies dragged on for three and a half months.
Beyond that, the organization continues to refuse to demilitarize Gaza, a key element of the second phase. The opening of the Rafah crossing, limited as it may be, is taking place while Hamas has not relinquished its weapons. At most, the group says the issue will be decided through "intra-Palestinian dialogue," a kind of black hole into which any issue that one does not wish to resolve is conveniently thrown. The identity of Hamas' next leader will likely affect tactics more than substance, whether outright refusal or agreement to one bluff or another.
Hamas, as usual, has no shame in appealing to international law. Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem claimed that "Palestinians have the right to enter and exit the Gaza Strip in complete freedom," and that "this right is guaranteed under international law."
In a world in which Israel is condemned in UN bodies more often than Iran on human rights issues, it is hardly surprising that murderous organizations responsible for massacres, rape and crimes against humanity cloak themselves in the language of human rights. At the same time, the statement reflects the desire in Gaza to expand the operation of the crossing. The objective is to allow a much broader influx of supplies and equipment, something worth vast sums to Hamas.
