Arab, Muslim nations reject Israel exit-only plan for Gaza’s Rafah crossing

Ministers slam Israeli breach of truce and its exit plan which aims to ‘displace Palestinian people from their land’.

Gaza mediators Egypt and Qatar, and six other Muslim-majority countries have raised the alarm over Israel’s stated plan for a one-way opening of the Rafah border crossing, which would allow Palestinians to leave their territory, but not to return, and block the entry of humanitarian aid.

Their warning comes as Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza continues unabated, with some 600 violations of the ceasefire in the last seven weeks, and reports that three people were killed in the latest round of attacks on Saturday in the northern town of Beit Lahiya.

The foreign ministers of Egypt, Indonesia, Jordan, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkiye and the United Arab Emirates issued a joint statement on Friday that expressed “deep concern” over a recent Israeli military announcement that the “Rafah Crossing will open in the coming days exclusively for the exit of residents from the Gaza Strip to Egypt”.

The announcement, which breaches Israeli obligations under the first phase of a United States-led peace plan, was made on Wednesday by an Israeli military unit called the Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), stating that one-way crossing would be allowed with Israeli “security approval” in coordination with Egypt.

However, Egypt and its cosignatories slammed the plan, expressing their “complete rejection of any attempts to displace the Palestinian people from their land” and stressing the need for Israel to fully comply with US President Donald Trump’s 20-point plan, which calls for the Rafah crossing to be opened in both directions.