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

May Be Interested In:Income Tax Bill News LIVE: Expected to be presented in Parliament this week


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.

Ambulances drive towards the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip as it reopens for the first time since May 2024. Photograph: Mohamed Abd El Ghany/Reuters
Share

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.

Share
Peter Beaumont

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.

A Palestinian girl injured in the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip is carried by medics before crossing the Rafah border into Egypt on Saturday. Photograph: Jehad Alshrafi/AP
Share

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.

Share

The Gaza health ministry says 50 Palestinian patients have left through the Rafah border crossing to Egypt.

More details soon …

Share

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.

Ambulances drive towards the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip as it reopens for the first time since May 2024. Photograph: Mohamed Abd El Ghany/Reuters
Share

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.

Share

Updated at 

Here are some of the latest images coming in today via the newswires:

A freed Palestinian detainee is greeted after being released from an Israeli jail as part of a hostages-prisoners swap and a ceasefire deal in Gaza between Hamas and Israel, in Ramallah, occupied West Bank. Photograph: Mohammed Torokman/Reuters
A drone views shows Palestinians and Hamas militants gathered in Gaza City ahead of a US-Israeli hostage handover on Saturday. Photograph: Mohammed Salem/Reuters
Activists who have been protesting weekly for the release of hostages in Gaza, celebrate the release of French-Israeli hostage, Ofer Kalderon, in Tel Aviv, Israel. Photograph: Tomer Appelbaum/Reuters
Trucks of humanitarian aid bound for the Gaza Strip wait in El-Arish to cross to the Rafah border crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt. Photograph: Mohamed Hossam/EPA
Share

Updated at 

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.

Red Cross members and Palestinian security forces talk to Palestinian prisoners and detainees after they were released from an Israeli jail as part of a hostages-prisoners swap, in Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank. Photograph: Ali Sawafta/Reuters
Share

Updated at 

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.

Friends of the hostages ride bikes in support of their arrival at Sheba hospital in Tel Aviv, Israel. Photograph: Alexi J Rosenfeld/Getty Images
Share

Explainer: What is the Rafah crossing?

Peter Beaumont

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.

Map showing the Rafah border crossing.
Map showing the Rafah border crossing.

Share

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.

Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades fighters release Israeli captive Yarden Bibas, to the International Committee of the Red Cross, as part of the ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement between Hamas and Israel, in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip. Photograph: Haitham Imad/EPA

Israel is expected to transfer 182 Palestinian prisoners and detainees, Hamas said.

Share

share Share facebook pinterest whatsapp x print

Similar Content

South Korea Fails to Detain Impeached President in Standoff at His Home
South Korea Fails to Detain Impeached President in Standoff at His Home
Kraven the Hunter Has Worst Ever Box Office Opening Weekend for a Sony Spider-Man Universe Movie, Even Below Madame Web - IGN
Kraven the Hunter Has Worst Ever Box Office Opening Weekend for a Sony Spider-Man Universe Movie, Even Below Madame Web – IGN
Netflix’s most streamed series ‘Squid Game’ returns for season 2
Netflix’s most streamed series ‘Squid Game’ returns for season 2
News18
Vivian Dsena’s Wife Nouran Aly On Excluding Karan Veer Mehra From Bigg Boss 18 Party: ‘Invited Who Didn’t Hurt’ – News18
J-Hope Unveils ‘Hope on the Stage’ International Tour Dates
J-Hope Unveils ‘Hope on the Stage’ International Tour Dates
Protein, weights and the best way to keep fit: your exercise questions answered – podcast
Protein, weights and the best way to keep fit: your exercise questions answered – podcast
Real News, Real People: Impactful Stories of Today | © 2025 | Daily News