Rafah crossing set to reopen as Israel holds hostage funeral (Full Transcript)

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: We're going to take you live now to Israel, funeral taking place for Ran Gevili. He was the last hostage to be retrieved from Gaza after the attacks of October the 7th. And we have been following over the last hour or two the procession to this site for the service to get underway. A poignant moment for Israel. You see the Prime Minister and President both there. He was the last hostage body to be recovered. And a significant moment broadly and diplomatically as well for a potential peace process there because with the repatriation of his body opens up potentially the next phase of the Donald Trump peace plan, which involves the opening of the Rafah crossing, that's a significant crossing from Gaza into Egypt, because that crossing doesn't go via Israel at all. We don't have the exact timings of when the Rafah crossing will be opened, but it is expected today. A little earlier I spoke to our Middle East correspondent, Yolan Nel, in Jerusalem.

[00:01:16] Speaker 2: So the Rafah crossing is the Gaza Strip's only crossing that doesn't lead into Israel. It goes into Egypt. It's seen as Gaza's gateway to the world, and it's been largely closed now for almost two years since Israel took control of Rafah in the very south of the Gaza Strip. And it remains in control of the Palestinian side of the crossing. What we've been hearing is that preparations have been made for the crossing to reopen. There are European supervisors who will be there working alongside locally based Palestinian staff. And the Israelis will have a mechanism to scrutinize those who are going through remotely. Everyone going through the crossing will be open in both directions, we understand. We'll have to have security clearance from both Israel and from the Egyptians as well. And it's important, of course, for Palestinians that the crossing should be opened in both directions. That was really something that the Egyptians in particular have been insisting upon. There's something like 18,000 Palestinian patients, people who are sick and wounded who are waiting for treatment outside of the Gaza Strip according to the World Health Organization. You also have thousands of Palestinians who have used an online registration system. They are hoping to be able to return to Gaza to join their families there. You also have, importantly, the head of the Palestinian Technocratic Committee, Dr. Ali Shath, who is waiting to go into Gaza, having been selected for that important role to oversee day-to-day running of the Gaza Strip with his committee overseen by the International Board of Peace headed by President Trump.

[00:03:00] Speaker 1: Thanks to Yolande for that.