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13-02-2026
GAZA STRIP: Forty-one Palestinians have arrived in Gaza via the Rafah crossing, becoming the seventh batch of returnees to make the journey since the partial reopening of the key transit point earlier this month, a painfully slow process riven by Israeli military control.
The group of returnees arrived on Tuesday evening in World Health Organization buses and were taken to the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis, a journalists team on the ground reported.
Like those who have previously made the journey, the returnees described being subjected to humiliating searches and interrogations by the Israeli military, which controls the Palestinian side of the key crossing point.
The Rafah crossing on the border with Egypt, the only way in or out of the enclave for nearly all of Gaza’s more than two million residents was kept shut by Israeli authorities for most of its genocidal war and only partially reopened on February 2.
With its reopening, a key condition of the United States-brokered “ceasefire” deal intended to end the war, Israel is allowing a limited number of pre-approved and heavily vetted people to travel, allowing Palestinians who had left during the war and been stranded outside to return, and enabling the transfer of patients’ desperately needing medical treatment in other countries.
With the latest arrivals, 172 Palestinians have returned to the Gaza Strip since the crossing’s reopening, while a mere 250 people, patients requiring medical treatment abroad, and their companions have left, Gaza’s Government Media Office says.
The pace of medical evacuations since the crossing’s partial reopening has been slower than the numbers promised, the “ceasefire” agreement mentioned 50 patients leaving the Strip each day, each accompanied by two family members far short of what was required to meet the needs of the approximately 20,000 patients in need of medical treatment in other countries.
Gaza’s healthcare system has been decimated by Israel’s genocidal war on the enclave, with 22 hospitals put out of service and 1,700 medical workers killed, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
Israeli attacks continue
Meanwhile, despite the supposed “ceasefire” agreement implemented in October, Israeli attacks have continued to target the Strip on a near-daily basis.
On Wednesday, a Palestinian child was wounded by Israeli gunfire in the Batn as-Sameen area, south of Khan Younis, the Wafa news agency reported, citing medical sources.
Israeli air strikes and artillery shelling also targeted areas under Israeli military control east of Khan Younis in the south of the Strip, a media team on the ground reported.
The latest violations of the “ceasefire” came after at least seven Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza on Tuesday.
Among the victims were at least three people killed by Israeli shelling and gunfire in central Gaza, and another killed by Israeli army fire north of Khan Younis.
Since the agreement came into force into October, 591 Palestinians have been killed and 1,578 injured, according to the Health Ministry, while 72,045 Palestinians have been killed since the start of the war.
Israel has violated the “ceasefire” agreement at least 1,620 times from October 10, 2025 to February 10, 2026, through the continuation of attacks by air, artillery and direct shootings, the Government Media Office in Gaza says.
The attacks came as Israel announced it had approved the forced expulsion of two Palestinians convicted of crimes in Israel to Gaza, in an unprecedented move that has been condemned by rights groups. (Int’l Monitoring Desk)
