The EUBAM Rafah mission, redeployed on 31 January (see EUROPE 13571/41), supervised the departure from Gaza of several hundred people via the Rafah crossing point, a senior European official announced on Friday 7 February.
“Most of them need medical care and are going to hospital in Egypt”, sometimes accompanied by “companions and family”, a senior European official told a number of journalists, including Agence Europe. These people are approved by Hamas, the Israelis and Egypt.
It is possible to leave Gaza via the Rafah crossing, a modest structure built in a few weeks by the Israelis, but not to enter. “It’s a one-way street”, explained the official. “Nothing and no one enters” through the crossing point, which is only for people, not goods.
“The number [of people leaving each day] varies a lot, it could be 30 one day, 120 another day, there is no concrete number to be reached during phase 1” of the ceasefire agreement, which runs until 2 March, the official said.
Six to eight European border management experts from the EUBAM Rafah mission are deployed to support 25 staff from the Palestinian Authority, who work on a rotating basis. The EUBAM members “are not in executive mode, they are simply ensuring that the [Palestinians] are doing their job and doing it properly, they are playing an advisory role”, said this official.
Around twenty members of the French Gendarmerie, the Italian Carabinieri and the Spanish Guarda Civil provided security. According to this senior official, there have been no security incidents to date.
The role of the mission is more than technical. “We are helping to open up the border, but above all we are helping to build confidence between the Tsahal, Egypt and the Palestinian Authority”, added the official. “By playing this third-party role, we as the European Union are also returning to a rather complex dynamic, but with a positive angle and a positive intervention that help the peace process”, he added.
Any extension of the mission beyond phase 1 will require a new agreement between the parties and the EU Member States. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)