Democracy Dies in Darkness

Rafah crossing between Israel and Egypt reopens after nearly two years

Some Palestinians were able to enter and exit Gaza via the crossing for the first time since May 2024. The reopening marks progress toward the ceasefire deal’s second phase.

February 2, 2026 at 5:06 a.m. ESTToday at 5:06 a.m. EST

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Ambulances stand on the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing on Sunday. (Ali Mustafa/Getty Images)

By Abbie Cheeseman

Heba Farouk Mahfouz

Siham Shamalakh

and

Lior Soroka

The Rafah border crossing, Gaza’s main gateway to the world, reopened Monday, allowing a limited number of Palestinians to begin entering and exiting the war-devastated enclave through it for the first time in almost two years, and fulfilling the final major requirement for the first phase of a U.S.-brokered ceasefire plan designed to put an end to the war.

By Abbie Cheeseman

Abbie Cheeseman reports on the Middle East for The Washington Post from Beirut. Before joining The Post, she spent five years reporting across the Middle East as a freelance correspondent and prior to that was an investigative reporter in London focusing on U.S. air wars in the Middle East and Afghanistan. cheesemanab

By Heba Farouk Mahfouz

Heba Farouk Mahfouz is a reporter/researcher in The Post’s Cairo bureau. She joined the paper in 2016 and has covered human rights, gender issues, the economy, religious minorities and the war in Gaza. Mahfouz previously reported for the Japanese News Agency in Cairo and Egypt's leading independent news website, Mada Masr.

By Lior Soroka

Lior Soroka is a Tel Aviv-based freelance reporter covering the Israel-Gaza war and the wider conflict in the Middle East. Soroka worked for Haaretz from 2013 to 2022, focusing on the arts, and in Kan News' podcast division from 2018 to 2021. He is an alumnus of the International Journalists' Programmes.

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