Middle East crisis live: Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners and detainees released as Rafah crossing opens for first time since May

Rafah border crossing reopens for first time since May to allow Palestinian patients into Egypt
The Rafah border crossing, the main entry and exit point for the Palestinian territory, reopened on Saturday for the first time since May 2024 to allow Palestinian patients to cross over from Gaza to Egypt to receive medical treatment, live television footage showed, according to Reuters.
Key events
Gaza health ministry says 50 patients left through Rafah crossing to Egypt
The Gaza health ministry in said 50 Palestinian patients went through the Rafah crossing to Egypt on Saturday, as the key gateway reopened as part of a ceasefire deal with Israel.
According to Agence France-Presse (AFP), Egyptian state-linked channel Al-Qahera News showed footage of the first of 50 evacuees and 53 companions, including a child with an autoimmune disease, crossing the border into Egypt to receive treatment.

Peter Beaumont
Egyptian television showed a Palestinian Red Cross ambulance pulling up to the Rafah border crossing gate, and several children were brought out on stretchers and transferred to ambulances on the Egyptian side.
It is worth noting that some of the Palestinian being released today were held in administrative detention, which allows for the preemptive arrest of individuals based on undisclosed evidence.
The Guardian understands that among the 183 Palestinians being released today 72 have been convicted in the Israeli courts, including 14 serving life sentences, while the remaining 111 are largely Palestinians from Gaza who had been detained without trial after the events of 7 October 2023.
According to figures published by the Israeli NGO HaMoked, as of January 2025 there were 10,221 Palestinians in Israeli prisons. About 3,376 of them are held under administrative detention, while 1,886 are classified as unlawful combatants. The Israel Defense Forces and Israeli government say the measures comply with international law.
The Gaza health ministry says 50 Palestinian patients have left through the Rafah border crossing to Egypt.
More details soon …
Rafah border crossing reopens for first time since May to allow Palestinian patients into Egypt
The Rafah border crossing, the main entry and exit point for the Palestinian territory, reopened on Saturday for the first time since May 2024 to allow Palestinian patients to cross over from Gaza to Egypt to receive medical treatment, live television footage showed, according to Reuters.
An Agence France-Press (AFP) correspondent reported that the bus had reached Beitunia near Ramallah where Palestinian prisoners and detainees disembarked and were greeted by cheering crowds of relatives.
Here are some of the latest images coming in today via the newswires:
Buses carrying released Palestinian prisoners and detainees from Israeli prisons arrive in West Bank’s Ramallah
Buses carrying released Palestinian prisoners and detainees from Israeli prisons arrived on Saturday in West Bank’s Ramallah, live television footage showed, according to Reuters.
An Agence France-Presse (AFP) reporter said they had earlier seen a bus carrying Palestinian prisoners and detainees leaving Ofer prison.
All three Israeli hostages back in Israel confirms military
Israel’s military has confirmed that all three freed Israeli hostages are now back in Israel.
Explainer: What is the Rafah crossing?

Peter Beaumont
The Rafah border crossing from Gaza into Egypt is the only one of the Gaza crossing points that does not communicate with Israel. While it was intended to be a significant crossing, since the Hamas takeover in 2007 it has only intermittently been open to Palestinians, most notably during the brief period when the Muslim Brotherhood governed Egypt until 2013.
Israel and Egypt’s joint blockade of Gaza under Hamas has made the crossing highly politically sensitive in Cairo – a situation that was exacerbated by an Islamist insurgency in the Sinai, which led to Egypt imposing controls on who was allowed to travel to towns and cities close to the Rafah crossing, not least the city of Arish.
Rafah, once a smuggling hub, is split between Egyptian Rafah and Palestinian Rafah, with the border running through it. Egypt’s deliberate flooding of the border area in 2015 was designed to close smuggling tunnels that connected the two, which at one time allowed people and goods to pass from Gaza to Egypt.
The Israeli military says the freed Israeli-American hostage, Keith Siegel, is in army custody.
Saturday’s handover saw none of the chaotic scenes that overshadowed an earlier transfer on Thursday, when Hamas guards struggled to shield hostages from a surging crowd in Gaza, reports Reuters.
But it was once again an occasion for a show of force by uniformed Hamas fighters who paraded in the area where the handovers took place in a sign of their re-established dominance in Gaza despite the heavy losses suffered in the war.
Israel is expected to transfer 182 Palestinian prisoners and detainees, Hamas said.