The head of a transitional Palestinian committee backed by the US to temporarily administer Gaza, Ali Shaath, said on Thursday that the Rafah Border Crossing between Gaza and Egypt — effectively the sole route in or out of Gaza for nearly all of the more than 2 million people who live there — would open next week.

The Gaza side of the crossing has been under Israeli military control since 2024.

Israel has resisted further easing the situation in the Strip before Gvili has been returned. Gvili’s family on Saturday expressed concern that pressure was being directed at Israel to move forward with the ceasefire plan, rather than on Hamas to return the hostage’s body.

“President [Donald] Trump himself said this week in Davos that Hamas knows where our son is. We wonder why the pressure is being directed at the wrong place. The pressure should not be on the Israeli government to continue to fulfill its part of the agreement while Hamas is deceiving the entire world and refusing to return the last kidnapped person, in accordance with the agreement it signed,” the family said in a statement.

The Gvili family called on Netanyahu to tell the US envoys that efforts should be made to return their son if they want to move forward with regional peace and the reconstruction of Gaza.

The Prime Minister’s Office confirmed that Netanyahu had met with Witkoff and Kushner, saying, without further elaborating, that they discussed the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire, but an Israeli official speaking to Hebrew media voiced sharp criticism of the two top Trump aides following the meeting.

According to the Ynet news site, there has been anger in Jerusalem as Witkoff pressures Israel to open the Rafah Border Crossing between Gaza and Egypt this week, even if Hamas fails to return Gvili’s remains.

“We hope Ran Gvili is returned this week and we can go forward,” the unnamed Israeli official was quoted as saying by the outlet, going on to attack the White House envoy.

“Witkoff pushed for placing our big rival Turkey on the border. The clock is ticking backwards to a confrontation with Turkey, which will be a tangible danger to our security,” the official added, according to Ynet.

“Witkoff has become a lobbyist for Qatari interests,” the official charged.

head of a transitional Palestinian committee backed by the US to temporarily administer Gaza, Ali Shaath, said on Thursday that the Rafah Border Crossing between Gaza and Egypt — effectively the sole route in or out of Gaza for nearly all of the more than 2 million people who live there — would open next week.

The Gaza side of the crossing has been under Israeli military control since 2024.

Israel has resisted further easing the situation in the Strip before Gvili has been returned. Gvili’s family on Saturday expressed concern that pressure was being directed at Israel to move forward with the ceasefire plan, rather than on Hamas to return the hostage’s body.

“President [Donald] Trump himself said this week in Davos that Hamas knows where our son is. We wonder why the pressure is being directed at the wrong place. The pressure should not be on the Israeli government to continue to fulfill its part of the agreement while Hamas is deceiving the entire world and refusing to return the last kidnapped person, in accordance with the agreement it signed,” the family said in a statement.

The Gvili family called on Netanyahu to tell the US envoys that efforts should be made to return their son if they want to move forward with regional peace and the reconstruction of Gaza.

The head of a transitional Palestinian committee backed by the US to temporarily administer Gaza, Ali Shaath, said on Thursday that the Rafah Border Crossing between Gaza and Egypt — effectively the sole route in or out of Gaza for nearly all of the more than 2 million people who live there — would open next week.

The Gaza side of the crossing has been under Israeli military control since 2024.

Israel has resisted further easing the situation in the Strip before Gvili has been returned. Gvili’s family on Saturday expressed concern that pressure was being directed at Israel to move forward with the ceasefire plan, rather than on Hamas to return the hostage’s body.

Kan news reported that Israel will operate a remote surveillance system at the crossing, be in charge of granting advanced approval to travelers coming in and out of the Gaza Strip, and be able to scan any computers or other electronic devices passing through.

While the Israel Defense Forces will not be physically present at the crossing, Israeli troops will be deployed nearby and operate their own checkpoint aimed at preventing weapons smuggling.

The crossing itself will be operated by officers from the European Union Border Assistance Mission, founded in 2005 to monitor the crossing, along with non-uniformed members of the Palestinian Authority’s intelligence service, Kan said. The same framework was used during the previous Israel-Hamas ceasefire in January 2025. Israel shuttered the crossing around two months later, and it has remained closed since.

The death toll in Gaza since October 7, 2023, now stands at 71,654, and the death toll since the October ceasefire at 481, according to data from Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry on Saturday. The tolls cannot be independently verified and do not differentiate between civilians and combatants.

The war broke out when Hamas-led terrorists invaded Israel, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and kidnapping 251.

Earlier this month, Washington announced that the plan had now moved into the second phase, under which Israel is expected to withdraw troops from more territory in Gaza, and Hamas is due to disarm and yield control of the territory’s administration.

Hamas has so far refused to give up its arms.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.