The Palestinian Authority does not operate the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt “despite the narrative it is trying to create,” a spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated on Monday night.
Omer Dostri, the Prime Minister’s Office spokesman, posted on X: “Nothing has changed in the management of civilian affairs in Gaza since the beginning of the war, including at the Rafah Crossing.”
“The P.A.'s only involvement is its stamp on passports, which, according to the existing international arrangement, is the only way Gazans may leave the Strip in order to enter, or be received in, other countries,” Netanyahu’s spokesman added, echoing a Jan. 22 PMO statement.
Dostri’s denial came after Israel’s Ynet news outlet reported that despite Jerusalem’s insisting that Ramallah plays no role in managing the Gaza crossing, senior P.A. officials have been stationed at Rafah since it was reopened over the weekend as part of the hostage deal with Hamas.
Jerusalem agreed to allow the daily passage into Egypt of 50 wounded terrorists, accompanied by up to three individuals each, starting on the 15th day of the Gaza ceasefire that went into effect on Jan. 19.
During the second stage of the Hamas deal, which is currently being negotiated, Israeli troops are expected to withdraw from the Philadelphi Corridor, the 8.7-mile border separating Gaza and Egypt.
Louy Izriqat, the official spokesman for the P.A. police, told Ynet on Monday that Fares a-Rifi—a member of P.A. chief Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah faction from the Gaza Strip—had recently been appointed by Ramallah to oversee the Rafah crossing on the Philadelphi Corridor.
The P.A. force reportedly includes nine police officers who previously worked on behalf of Ramallah at Gaza border crossings and are now returning to work in their previous positions.
The P.A. was said to be securing Gaza’s southernmost border crossing with officials associated with the European Union Border Assistance Mission (EUBAM) Rafah, as well as Egyptian security officials.
On Friday, the office of E.U. foreign affairs chief Kaja Kallas announced that the European mission was redeployed to Rafah “at the request of the Palestinians and the Israelis in agreement with the Egyptians.”
“The mission deployed a specialized team to the Rafah Crossing Point to allow Palestinian personnel to reopen the RCP,” the statement noted, adding that “EUBAM Rafah personnel is monitoring the transfers.”
Hamas has for years exploited the border with Egypt to smuggle arms and other materials into Gaza via a vast network of tunnels, which the IDF located and dismantled after taking control of the area in May.
Setting Jerusalem’s “red lines” in the hostage talks in July, Netanyahu said the Israeli government under his leadership would “not allow the smuggling of weapons to Hamas from Egypt, first and foremost through Israeli control of the Philadelphi Corridor and the Rafah crossing.”
Israel might consider a withdrawal from the area as part of a truce deal with Hamas if a viable alternative can be found to prevent the terrorist group from rearming itself through tunnels, he subsequently stated.
