Gaza, 4 February 2026 – After nearly two years of complete closure of Rafah Crossing following it seizure by Israel on 7 May 2024, the crossing has been reopened under a tightly controlled regime, transforming it into a system of screening, humiliation, and collective punishment. Under the current mechanism, all movement through the crossing is subject to prior Israeli approval, with Palestinian civilians—including medical evacuees such as patients and the wounded, as well as individuals seeking to return to Gaza—filtered through pre-approved lists and a militarized screening corridor.

Israeli authorities exercise full control over this process, which reportedly includes physical searches, identity checks, and the use of facial-recognition technology. Rather than facilitating civilian passage, these procedures function as tools of coercion and intimidation, exposing civilians to degrading treatment, arbitrary detention, and prolonged uncertainty. As a result, the Rafah Crossing has ceased to operate as a humanitarian or civilian transit point and has instead been repurposed as an instrument of population control, deliberately undermining the dignity of Palestinians and entrenching conditions of fear and subjugation consistent with Israel’s broader unlawful policies toward Gaza.

On the first day of the crossing’s operation, Monday, 2 February 2026, Israeli forces subjected Palestinians returning through Rafah to arbitrary investigations and degrading interrogations. A number of women were handcuffed and detained for several hours in harsh and inhumane conditions, while others were exposed to repressive practices that may amount to physical and psychological torture. Civilians, including medical evacuees, patients, and the elderly—were deliberately treated in a punitive manner designed to instill fear, strip them of dignity, and transform the act of return into a mechanism of systematic abuse and suffering.

A 56-year-old Palestinian female witness, from Khan Younis, told Al Mezan:

“I was receiving treatment at Al-Arish Hospital [in Egypt], accompanied by my daughter, Rotana Al-Reqeb. I travelled for treatment for heart and eye problems. We were informed of our return to the Gaza Strip after the end of the treatment period only one day before our travel date.

In the early hours of Monday, 3 February 2026, we travelled to the Rafah Crossing and arrived at 6:00 a.m. On the Egyptian side, we were welcomed with flowers, food, and water, and the treatment was kind. We waited until sunset, when approval to enter the Gaza Strip was granted. Initially, nine people were allowed to enter; later, my name, my daughter’s name, and another woman’s name were called, bringing the total to 12 people—nine women and three children.

We entered the Palestinian side in three vehicles. We were searched by European Union personnel, who confiscated all items we had with us, including toys and food, stating that only clothing was permitted. Eye drops were discarded because they were liquids, along with other medications.

After the search, we left the crossing toward Gaza on a bus carrying the 12 of us and the driver. While we were on the road after leaving the crossing, armed men who said they belonged to the Abu Shabab group [Israeli-backed criminal gang] stopped us and took us to a place consisting of an open yard with rooms and barbed wire. They blindfolded us and then interrogated us. I was interrogated for about three hours. They asked me where I lived, questioned me about the names of some martyrs, about 7 October, and other matters.

We were terrified and in a state of extreme exhaustion. They then released us.”

Despite the degrading and arbitrary conditions imposed by Israeli authorities on the operation of the Rafah Crossing—including the confinement of civilians within fenced corridors monitored by surveillance cameras, and the use of areas rendered unfit due to extensive Israeli destruction—Israel further tightened its control over movement during the initial phase of reopening. The crossing has been operating under restrictive quotas, limiting departures to no more than 150 individuals per day, including up to 50 patients with two companions each, and restricting returnees to 50, with all movement subject to the prior approval of names by Israeli authorities.

In practice, these quotas were applied even more severely. On the first day of reopening, only 12 civilians—nine women and three children—were permitted to return to Gaza, while the remainder were turned back. At the same time, only eight patients and their companions were allowed to travel for medical treatment.

The situation of patients remains among the most critical consequences of the restrictions imposed on the Rafah Crossing. Over more than two years of Israel’s genocide on Gaza, the health system has been systematically devastated, medical facilities have been destroyed, and access to essential medicines and specialized care has collapsed, leaving tens of thousands of patients and wounded in urgent need of treatment outside the Gaza Strip. According to the Ministry of Health, more than 20,000 sick and wounded patients currently require urgent medical treatment abroad.

Despite this overwhelming need, Israel has imposed severe numerical restrictions on medical travel through Rafah, allowing no more than 50 patients per day to leave Gaza. At this rate, it would take many months—if not years—for patients in need of urgent care to access treatment, rendering the process effectively meaningless for those whose conditions are time-critical. This system places the lives of thousands of patients and wounded civilians at grave and foreseeable risk, amounting to a sustained denial of access to life-saving medical care.

Issam Younis, Director of Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, stated:

 "We warn against the crimes committed by the occupying power and its transformation of the Rafah Crossing into a tool of systematic humiliation that undermines the dignity of Palestinian travelers. What Israel is pursuing is merely a symbolic reopening of the crossing, allowing only a very limited number of people to travel and return, while maintaining full control over movement.

We call for an immediate end to the ongoing and organized aggression against the Palestinian people; for the full opening of the Rafah Crossing and all other crossings to ensure the free movement of persons and goods to and from the Gaza Strip; for the unhindered entry of humanitarian aid and essential supplies; for the immediate withdrawal of occupation forces from the entire Gaza Strip; and for the international community to fulfil its legal and moral obligations, in accordance with the advisory opinions of the International Court of Justice."

While the reopening of the Rafah Crossing may be presented as a positive step, its very limited operation under full Israeli control does not constitute genuine access or freedom of movement. Rather, it forms part of a broader set of Israeli procedures and policies that systematically deprive Palestinians in Gaza of their right to freedom of movement. Al Mezan stresses that these policies cannot be viewed in isolation from Israel’s real objective, which has been implemented throughout more than two years of genocide: to inflict the most severe forms of harm on the civilian population and impose a coercive reality aimed at rendering the Gaza Strip uninhabitable and forcibly driving its population to leave, as part of a systematic policy of forced displacement. This objective is pursued by turning the lives of more than two million Palestinians into an unbearable daily reality—an extensive form of collective punishment and an ongoing crime intended to break the will of the Palestinian people and strip them of their most basic human rights.

Accordingly, Al Mezan calls on the international community to intervene urgently and without delay to halt these crimes; to put an end to Israel’s weaponization of the Rafah Crossing and to address the grave humanitarian and legal consequences resulting from its operation as a system of control and punishment; to ensure the full and permanent opening of the crossing; to guarantee freedom of movement for Palestinians, particularly patients and the wounded; to hold Israeli officials accountable for crimes committed against the Palestinian population; and to end the policies of collective punishment and forced displacement carried out in plain sight of the international community