JAKARTA - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office announced on Sunday night that Israel would reopen the Rafah Crossing between the Gaza Strip (Palestine) and Egypt after completing a military operation to find the body of the last hostage, Head Sergeant Ran Gvili.
The announcement follows an Israeli security cabinet meeting on the issue, and with Israel facing significant international pressure to reopen the Rafah Crossing.
Although a statement from Netanyahu's office did not provide a specific timetable for the operation (Israel Defense Forces) IDF trying to find Gvili's body, a US official told The Times of Israel, Washington estimates that the search will last several days, allowing the reopening of Rafah this weekend, as quoted Monday (26/1).
The IDF confirmed on Sunday night that they were searching for Gvili's body at a cemetery in the northern Gaza Strip. The IDF said that although it was reasonable that Gvili's body was at the cemetery, there were other potential intelligence clues about where his body might be.
The head of the National Committee for Gaza Administration (NCAG) and Gaza's envoy to the Peace Council, which oversees the NCAG, announced on Thursday last week that Rafah would reopen this week for the first time in almost a year.
Although also used for goods during the war, the use intended for the Rafah Crossing is for pedestrians.
Netanyahu's office said in a statement on Sunday that the opening of the only crossing between Egypt and Gaza was conditional "on the return of all surviving hostages and on Hamas' 100 percent effort to find and return all dead hostages."
The Israeli-Hamas deal on October 9 on the first phase of US President Donald Trump's broader Gaza peace plan set a return of all hostages within 72 hours, but left open the possibility that the search for bodies from under the rubble of Gaza may take longer, and did not explicitly require the reopening of Rafah on the return of all hostages.
Israel has refused to resume the second phase of Trump's peace plan - including reopening the Rafah Crossing - before Gvili's body is returned.
Meanwhile, Hamas said they did not know the exact location of his body and had made search efforts.
A statement from Netanyahu's office said the IDF was conducting a "focused operation to fully exploit all the intelligence obtained in an effort to find and return" Gvili.
After the operation is completed, "and in accordance with what has been agreed with the United States," Israel will reopen the crossing, the statement said.
The statement stressed that Israel was committed to returning Gvili and would do everything it could to bring back his body.
The search operation began at the weekend, based on intelligence information, the bodies were buried in a Muslim cemetery in the east of Gaza City, near the Shejaiya, Daraj and Tuffah neighborhoods.
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