Israel says Gaza’s Rafah crossing will remain closed, adding pressure over hostages’ remains

CAIRO — The Rafah border crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt will stay closed “until further notice,” Israel said Saturday, after the Palestinian Embassy in Egypt said the territory’s sole gateway to the outside world would reopen Monday for people returning to Gaza.

The statement by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said reopening Rafah would depend on how Hamas fulfills its ceasefire role of returning the remains of all 28 dead hostages. Israel’s Foreign Ministry earlier said the crossing would probably reopen Sunday.

Hamas has handed over the remains of 10 hostages. In a statement, it asserted that its armed wing would hand over the remains of two more Saturday night, without identifying them.

The handover of remains is among key points — along with aid deliveries into Gaza and the devastated territory’s future — in the ceasefire process meant to end two years of war.

The Rafah crossing is the only one that was 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.

Israel has been returning the bodies of Palestinians with no names, only numbers. Gaza’s Health Ministry posts photos of them online, hoping families will come forward.

”Just like they took their captives, we want our captives. Bring me my son, bring all our kids back,” said a tearful Iman Sakani, whose son went missing during the war. She was among dozens of anxious families waiting at Nasser Hospital in Gaza.

One woman knelt, crying over a body after identifying it.

As part of the ceasefire agreement, Israel on Saturday returned 15 bodies of Palestinians to Gaza, bringing the total it has returned to 135.

Meanwhile, Gaza’s ruins were being scoured for the dead. Newly recovered bodies brought the Palestinian toll above 68,000, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

The ministry, part of the Hamas-run government, doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants in its count. But the ministry maintains detailed casualty records that are seen as generally reliable by United Nations agencies and independent experts. Israel has disputed them without providing its own toll.

Hamas-led militants killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 251 people hostage in the attack on southern Israel that sparked the war on Oct. 7, 2023.

Israel said the remains of a 10th hostage that Hamas handed over the day before were identified as those of Eliyahu Margalit.

The 76-year-old was abducted from kibbutz Nir Oz during the Oct. 7 attack. His remains were found after bulldozers plowed up pits in the southern city of Khan Yunis.

The effort to find the remaining 18 hostages followed a threat from President Trump that he would urge Israel to resume the war on Gaza if Hamas doesn’t live up to its end of the deal and return them all.

Hamas has said that 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.

The hostage forum that supports the families of those abducted said it will continue holding weekly rallies until all are returned.

“We will bring back all the deceased hostages!” Einav Zangauker, the mother of Matan Zangauker, who was among the 20 living hostages returned last week, said at the rally in Tel Aviv.

Hamas has urged mediators to increase the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza for its 2 million people. There are continued closures of crossings and Israeli restrictions on aid groups.

“Vast parts of the city are just a wasteland,” U.N. humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher said Saturday while visiting Gaza City.

U.N. 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 defense body overseeing aid in Gaza, reported 950 trucks — including commercial trucks and bilateral deliveries — crossing on Thursday and 716 on Wednesday, the U.N. said.

Throughout the war, Israel restricted aid to Gaza, sometimes halting it altogether.

International food security experts declared famine in Gaza City, and the U.N. says it has verified more than 400 people who died of malnutrition-related causes, including more than 100 children.

Israel has said it let in enough food and accused Hamas of stealing much of it, which the U.N. and other aid agencies deny.

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 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.

Israel’s army said it saw a “suspicious vehicle” crossing the so-called yellow line — the boundary for Israeli forces in Gaza established as part of the ceasefire agreement — 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.

Ezzidin, Mednick and Magdy write for the Associated Press. Ezzidin and Magdy reported from Cairo, Mednick from Tel Aviv. AP writer Wafaa Shurafa in Deir al Balah, Gaza Strip, contributed to this report.