Israel ties Rafah reopening to final hostage recovery (Full Transcript)

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: Israel has said it will reopen the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza once it has found the last remaining body of a hostage from the Hamas attacks in October 2023. A search is underway in a cemetery in northern Gaza for Rangvili, a 24-year-old police officer who was killed defending a kibbutz. Hamas says it has provided details of his whereabouts. The Israeli government says the reopening of the Rafah crossing would be on a limited basis to allow the passage of people. Let's go live to Jerusalem and our Middle East correspondent Yolande Nel. Yolande, just bring us up to date on the search and the position on the Rafah crossing opening.

[00:00:44] Speaker 2: So what we've seen in the latest statement that's come from the Israeli Prime Minister's office is a bit of a shift in its position. It said that it's going to allow this reopening of the Rafah crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt, saying this will be limited and that will take place upon completion of the operation to locate the body of Rangvili, the Israeli police officer who was killed in the Hamas-led attacks on the 7th of October 2023 and who is the last remaining hostage in Gaza. Now just to remind people, if you go back to what was written into the initial stages of the Gaza ceasefire, which came into effect last October, well it was supposed to be that all of the remaining Israeli hostages, those alive and dead, were returned and that the Rafah crossing, so important for humanitarian purposes, would be reopened as well. Now because of the slow pace of the return of the bodies of the hostages, Israel decided not to reopen the Rafah crossing as had been expected. That has been an ongoing issue. Now when it comes to the search for Rangvili's body, that has been going on for weeks now. We understand that there is information that has been provided to the Israeli military and that it is now carrying out the search in a cemetery which is to the east of Gaza City. They are exhuming bodies in that area which is very close to the so-called yellow line which demarcates the part of Gaza which is under Israeli military control.

[00:02:20] Speaker 1: If the Rafah crossing is reopened, what would that mean?

[00:02:26] Speaker 2: The Rafah crossing is an extremely important gateway for the Gaza Strip. It is the only one of five crossing points which is to Egypt, not into Israel. That will be important for the entry of humanitarian aid and for Gazans who are wanting to return home to help their families. Also for thousands of sick and wounded Gazans to exit from the Strip so that they can have treatment that is not available there given the very poor conditions in the medical sector. It is also the route through which we are expecting the Palestinian technocratic government to enter into the Gaza Strip so that it can take control from Hamas. That is of course the second stage of the Gaza ceasefire plan. That is something that the US mediators are very keen now to advance. They have been putting a lot of pressure on Israel and on Hamas as well to get the ceasefire, the second stage of it, really going.

[00:03:29] Speaker 1: We saw finally, Jolande, more details during Davos on the whole peace board, President Trump's peace board and some details on that. Can you give us a sense of the reaction in the region to what came out of Davos on that?

[00:03:49] Speaker 2: The plans that have been put forward for Gaza, it is more detail on the very ambitious plans for the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip. But what we are getting in terms of reaction is really sort of the stark contrast to the reality at the moment of where things are stuck. The fact that you don't have the Rafah crossing reopening for all those reasons that we have mentioned, that the body has not been returned. There is a lot of resistance within Israel to opening the Rafah crossing to making advances on to the Gaza ceasefire's second stage without that happening. And yet in recent days, we have had President Trump basically saying that the second stage of the Gaza ceasefire, of his big peace plan for Gaza and even the region beyond, that that is now underway. Jolande Nell, thank you very much indeed there live in Jerusalem.