What is the Rafah crossing and why is it key for Gaza?

The bombings against the Gaza Strip do not stop. During the night of Sunday, and since the Palestinian-Israeli conflict intensified on October 7, thousands of people tried to evacuate northern Gaza due to the threat of an offensive by the Israel Defense Forces.

The Army gave the civilian population a period of 24 hours to evacuate, although the mobilization of more than a million people in one of the most densely populated territories in the world is not an easy task.

This same morning, in addition, the agreement was known by which, supposedly, the US, Israel and Egypt had agreed to a ceasefire in the south of Gaza to open a humanitarian corridor in Rafá, according to the Reuters agency, although only a few hours Later, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denied that agreement.

The Rafáh Pass, a humanitarian corridor

The Rafah crossing was officially recognized in the 1979 Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty, and is the only border crossing between Egypt and Palestine. It is located in the city of Rafah, which separates the Palestinian region from the Gaza Strip and the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula..

For some time it was controlled by the Israeli Airport Authority, until, after the Israeli unilateral termination, it became managed by the European Union Mission for Border Assistance in Rafah and today it is the only crossing not controlled by the State. From Israel.

The other five border crossings are: Erez, Nahal Oz, Karni, Magahzi, Sufa and Kerem Shalom, all of which were closed before the outbreak of the conflict and which connect Gaza with Israeli territory.

This step would constitute, if the agreement is reached, the humanitarian corridor through which the Palestinian population of Gaza could evacuate.