Palestinian embassy in Egypt says Rafah crossing will reopen Monday for people returning to Gaza
Cairo (AP): The Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt will reopen Monday for people returning to Gaza, the Palestinian embassy in Egypt said Saturday, but the territory's sole gateway to the outside world will remain closed to people trying to leave.
“The number of people registering to return to Gaza is very big,” Naji al-Naji, cultural counselor at the embassy, told The Associated Press without saying how many.
There was no immediate comment from Israel.
The Rafah crossing is the only one not controlled by Israel before the war. It has been closed since May 2024, when Israel took control of the Gaza side. A fully reopened crossing would make it easier for Gazans to seek medical treatment, travel internationally or visit family in Egypt, home to tens of thousands of Palestinians.
Meanwhile, Gaza's ruins were being scoured for the dead, over a week into a ceasefire. Newly recovered bodies brought the Palestinian toll above 68,000, according to Gaza's Health Ministry.
The ministry maintains detailed casualty records that are seen as generally reliable by UN agencies and independent experts. Israel has disputed them without providing its own toll.
Hostages' remains
Israel said the remains of a 10th hostage that Hamas handed over the day before were identified as Eliyahu Margalit.
The handover of hostages' remains, called for under the ceasefire agreement, is among key points — along with aid deliveries into Gaza and the devastated territory's future — in a process backed by much of the international community to help end two years of war.
The office of the Israeli prime minister said that Margalit's family had been notified. The 76-year-old was abducted from kibbutz Nir Oz during the October 7 attack. His remains were found after bulldozers plowed up pits in the southern city of Khan Younis.
The effort to find the remaining 18 hostages followed a warning from US President Donald Trump that he would greenlight a resumption of the war by Israel, if Hamas doesn't live up to its end of the deal and return them all.
In a statement, the hostage forum that supports the families of those abducted said they won't rest until the remaining hostages come home. The forum said that it will continue holding weekly rallies until all are returned.
Hamas has said it is committed to the terms of the ceasefire deal, but that the retrieval of remains is hampered by the scope of the devastation and the presence of unexploded ordnance. The group has told mediators that some remains are in areas controlled by Israeli troops.
As part of the ceasefire agreement, Israel on Saturday returned the bodies of a further 15 Palestinians to Gaza. Gaza's Health Ministry said the International Committee of the Red Cross handed over the bodies to Nasser Hospital, bringing the total number Israel had returned to 135.
In announcing the updated Palestinian death toll, the ministry said the number has climbed since the ceasefire began, with the majority of the newly counted bodies being found during recovery efforts.
Thousands of people are still missing, according to the Red Cross.
Hamas accuses Israel of violations
Hamas again accused Israel of continuing attacks and violating the ceasefire, asserting that 38 Palestinians had been killed since it began. There was no immediate response from Israel, which still maintains control of about half of Gaza.
On Friday, Gaza's Civil Defense, first responders operating under the Hamas-run Interior Ministry, said nine people were killed, including women and children, when their vehicle was hit by Israeli fire in Gaza City. The Civil Defense said the car crossed into an Israeli-controlled area in eastern Gaza.
The Civil Defense said Israel could have warned the people in a manner that wasn't lethal. The group recovered the bodies Saturday with coordination from the United Nations, it said.
Israel's army said it saw a “suspicious vehicle” crossing the so-called yellow line and approaching troops. It said it fired warning shots, but the vehicle continued to approach in a manner that posed an “imminent threat.” The army said it acted in accordance with the ceasefire.
Aid demands
Hamas has urged mediators to increase the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza for its 2 million people, expedite the full opening of the Rafah border crossing and start reconstruction of the battered territory.
The flow of aid remains constrained because of continued closures of crossings and Israeli restrictions on aid groups.
UN data on Friday showed 339 trucks have been offloaded for distribution in Gaza since the ceasefire began. Under the agreement, about 600 aid trucks per day should be allowed to enter.
COGAT, the Israeli defence body overseeing aid in Gaza, reported 950 trucks — including commercial trucks and bilateral deliveries — crossing on Thursday and 716 on Wednesday, the UN said.
Throughout the war, Israel restricted aid to Gaza, sometimes halting it altogether.
International food security experts declared famine in Gaza City, and the UN says it has verified more than 400 people who died of malnutrition-related causes, including over 100 children.
Israel has long said it let in enough food and accused Hamas of stealing much of it. The UN and other aid agencies deny the claim.
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‘Self-styled Vishwaguru stands exposed’: Cong's dig at PM over Pak role in US-Iran ceasefire
New Delhi (PTI): Taking a swipe at the government, the Congress on Wednesday said the role played by Pakistan in bringing about the ceasefire between the US and Iran is a “severe setback” to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's “highly personalised diplomacy” and “the self-styled Vishwaguru stands thoroughly exposed”.
The opposition party also said Prime Minister Modi's “cowardice is demonstrated by his silence not only on Israel’s belligerence, but on the completely unacceptable and disgraceful language being used by his good friend in the White House”.
Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh said the entire world will cautiously welcome the two-week ceasefire in the West Asia conflict between the US and Israel on the one side and Iran on the other.
“The conflict had begun on February 28th with the targeted assassinations of the topmost echelons of the regime in Iran. These had started just two days after Prime Minister Modi had completed his much-trumpeted visit to Israel, a visit that diminished India’s global stature and standing,” Ramesh claimed.
PM Modi had said nothing about Israel’s "genocide" in Gaza and its aggressively expansionist policies in the occupied West Bank, Ramesh said.
“The role played by Pakistan in bringing about the ceasefire is a severe setback to both the substance and style of Mr Modi’s highly personalised diplomacy,” he said.
The policy to isolate Pakistan for its continuing support to terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir and to convince the world that it is a failed state has clearly not succeeded – unlike what Manmohan Singh had accomplished after the Mumbai terror attacks, Ramesh claimed.
That a bankrupt economy dependent entirely on the largesse of external donors and a broken country in so many ways was able to play such a role calls into question Modi’s strategy of engagement and narrative management, he said.
“He (Modi) or his team has also never explained why Op Sindoor was suddenly and abruptly halted on May 10th 2025 - the first announcement of which came from the US Secretary of State and for which the US President has claimed credit almost a hundred times since then,” the Congress leader said.
“There is a palpable sigh of relief everywhere. The External Affairs Minister (S Jaishankar) dismissed Pakistan as a dalal. But now the self-styled Vishwaguru stands thoroughly exposed, his self-declared 56-inch chest shrunk and shrivelled,” Ramesh said.
“His cowardice is demonstrated by his silence not only on Israel’s belligerence, but on the completely unacceptable and disgraceful language being used by his good friend in the White House,” the Congress leader added.
US President Donald Trump pulled back on his threats to launch devastating strikes on Iran late Tuesday, as the US and Iran agreed to a two-week ceasefire that includes the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.
Trump swerved to de-escalate the war less than two hours before the deadline he set for Tehran to capitulate to a deal or face attacks on its bridges and power plants meant to destroy the Iranian civilisation.
Trump made the dramatic announcement on Truth Social on Tuesday evening (US time) even as Democrats called for his removal over unhinged threats to wipe out the Iranian civilisation.
"Based on conversations with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Field Marshal Asim Munir, of Pakistan, and wherein they requested that I hold off the destructive force being sent tonight to Iran, subject to the Islamic Republic of Iran agreeing to the COMPLETE, IMMEDIATE, and SAFE OPENING of the Strait of Hormuz," the US President said in a social media post.
Iran's Supreme National Security Council said it has accepted the ceasefire and that it would negotiate with the United States in Pakistan beginning Friday. Neither Iran nor the United States said when the ceasefire would begin, and attacks took place in Israel, Iran and across the Gulf region early Wednesday.
Israel backed the US ceasefire with Iran but the deal doesn't cover fighting against Hezbollah in Lebanon, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said early Wednesday.
