CAIRO (AP) — Palestinians in Gaza watched with hope and impatience on Sunday as preparations for the reopening of the crucial Rafah border crossing with Egypt, their vital connection to the world.

Israel said the reopening of the crossing is scheduled for Monday as its ceasefire with Hamas progresses.

“Opening the crossing is a good step, but they have put a limit on the number of people who can cross, and this is a problem,” said Ghalia Abu Mustafa, a woman from Khan Yunis.

Israel announced that the crossing had opened on a trial basis, and the Israeli military agency that controls aid to Gaza said residents could begin crossing on Monday. But at first only a small number of people will be able to cross.

“We want a large number of people to be able to leave, to be open so that the sick can go and return,” said Suhaila Al-Astal, a displaced woman from the city of Rafah who said her sick daughter needed help abroad. “We want the crossing to be open permanently.”

Israel's announcement came a day after Israeli strikes killed at least 30 Palestinians, including several children, according to hospital staff — one of the highest death tolls since the ceasefire began on October 10. Israel had accused Hamas of further violations of the truce.

Nicolay Mladenov, director general of US President Donald Trump's new Gaza Peace Board, urged the parties to “exercise restraint” and said his office is working with the new Palestinian commission chosen to oversee Gaza to find ways to prevent future incidents.

Dozens of people will enter and leave Gaza daily at first

The Rafah crossing has been largely closed since Israel seized it in May 2024. About 20,000 Palestinian children and adults in need of medical care hope to leave devastated Gaza there, and thousands of other Palestinians outside the territory hope to return home.

Few people will be allowed through at first and there will be no goods crossing. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has stated that 50 patients requiring medical evacuation per day will be allowed to leave. An official involved in the talks, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss diplomatic talks, said each patient will be allowed to travel with two family members, and about 50 people who left Gaza during the war will be allowed to return each day.

Zaher al-Wahidi, head of the Documentation Department at the Health Ministry in Gaza, told The Associated Press that the ministry has not yet been informed about the start of medical evacuations.

Israel has indicated that as much Their governments and Egypt will screen people for exit and entry through the crossing, which will be supervised by European Union border patrol officers. The number of travelers is expected to increase over time if the system is successful.

Israel to stop Doctors Without Borders' work in Gaza

Also on Sunday, Israel's Diaspora Ministry announced that it was “acting to end” Doctors Without Borders' operations in Gaza by Feb. 28.

Israel in December suspended the group's operations there because it refused to comply with new registration requirements for organizations to submit lists of local employees. The medical organization stressed that the regulations could endanger its Palestinian staff.

Doctors Without Borders had no immediate comment. It has warned that Israel's decision will have a catastrophic impact on its work in Gaza, where it provides international funding and staff for six hospitals, in addition to operating two field hospitals and eight primary health centers, clinics and medical points. It also runs two of Gaza's five stabilization centers that help severely malnourished children.

Israel has suspended more than two dozen humanitarian organizations from operating in Gaza due to their failure or refusal to comply with new requirements.

The Diaspora Ministry, which proposed the new rules, maintains that their goal is to prevent Hamas and other armed groups from infiltrating aid organizations. But the organizations say the rules are arbitrary and warned that the bans will harm a civilian population in desperate need of humanitarian aid.

Gaza's health sector has been devastated by two years of Israeli bombing and supply restrictions.

Rafah has been Gaza's main crossing

On Sunday, Palestinian security officers passed through the Egyptian gate of the Rafah crossing and headed toward the Palestinian gate to join an EU mission that will monitor exit and entry, said an Egyptian official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media. Ambulances also crossed through the Egyptian gate, the official added.

Before the war, Rafah was the main crossing for people entering and leaving Gaza. Although Gaza has four other border crossings, these are shared with Israel.

Israeli troops seized and closed the Rafah crossing in May 2024, a move they described as part of efforts to combat Hamas arms trafficking. The crossing was briefly opened for the evacuation of medical patients during a ceasefire in early 2025. Israel had resisted reopening Rafah, but the recovery of the remains of the last hostage in Gaza last week cleared the way to move forward.

Under the terms of the ceasefire, the Israeli military controls the area between the Rafah crossing and the area where most Palestinians live.

Fearing that Israel could use the crossing to push back Palestinians out of the enclave, Egypt has reiterated that it must be open for both entry and exit from Gaza. Historically, Israel and Egypt have screened Palestinians who request to cross.

The current ceasefire halted more than two years of war between Israel and Hamas that began with a Hamas-led attack in southern Israel on October 7, 2023, which killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took 251 hostages.

Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed 71,795 Palestinians, including 523 since the current ceasefire began, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. The Ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its figures. It maintains detailed casualty records that are considered generally reliable by U.N. agencies and independent experts.

The first phase of the truce called for the exchange of all hostages held in Gaza for hundreds of Palestinians detained by Israel, an increase in much-needed humanitarian aid, and a partial withdrawal of Israeli troops.

The second phase is more complicated. It calls for the establishment of a new Palestinian commission to govern Gaza, the deployment of an international security force, the disarmament of Hamas and taking steps to begin reconstruction.

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This story was translated from English by an AP editor with the help of a generative artificial intelligence tool.