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A limited number of Palestinians were able to travel between Gaza and Egypt on Sunday after The Rafah crossing in Gaza reopened after a two-day closure, Egyptian state media reported. The vital border point opened last week for the first time since 2024, one of the main requirements for US-backed ceasefire.

The crossing was closed Friday and Saturday due to confusion over reopening operations, the AP reported.

Egyptian television station Al Qahera said Palestinians began crossing in both directions around noon on Sunday. Israel did not immediately confirm.

Egyptian state media also reported Sunday that the country was preparing to receive another group of wounded or sick Palestinians seeking treatment in Egyptian hospitals.

Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to travel to Washington this week, although the main topic of discussion will be Iran, his office said.

During the first four days of the crossing’s opening, only 36 Palestinians in need of medical care were allowed to leave for Egypt, along with 62 companions, according to United Nations data, after Israel recovered the body of the last hostage held in Gaza and several American officials visited Israel to press for the opening.

Palestinian officials say nearly 20,000 people in Gaza are trying to leave to receive medical care that is not available in the war-torn territory. Those who managed to cross described delays and accusations of mistreatment by Israeli forces and other groups involved in the crossing, including Abu Shabab, a Palestinian armed group backed by Israel.

A group of Palestinian patients and wounded gathered Sunday morning in the courtyard of a Red Crescent hospital in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis before heading to the Rafah crossing with Egypt for treatment abroad, relatives told The News.

Amjad Abu Jedian, who was wounded in the war, was scheduled to leave Gaza for medical treatment on the first day of the crossing’s reopening, but only five patients were allowed to travel that day, said his mother, Raja Abu Jedian. Abu Jedian was shot by an Israeli sniper while building traditional toilets in the central Bureij refugee camp in July 2024, he said.

On Saturday, his family received a call from the World Health Organization notifying them that he is included in the group that will travel on Sunday, he said.

“We want them to take care of the patients (during their evacuation),” he said. “We want the Israeli army not to burden them.”

The Israeli defense branch that oversees the operation of the crossing did not immediately confirm the opening.

A group of Palestinians also arrived on the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing on Sunday morning to return to the Gaza Strip, Egyptian state satellite television Al-Qahera News reported.

Palestinians who returned to Gaza in the first days of the crossing operation described hours of delays and invasive searches by Israeli authorities and Abu Shabab. A European Union mission and Palestinian officials control the border crossing, and Israel has its control facilities some distance away.

The Rafah border crossing reopened on February 2 as a key step in the ongoing ceasefire agreement, which ended more than two years of war between Israel and Hamas. However, traffic was limited. Egyptian state media and an Israeli official confirmed at the time that the reopening was largely symbolic, as many people would not be allowed to travel in any direction and no goods would be allowed to enter.

Restrictions negotiated by Israeli, Egyptian, Palestinian and international officials meant that only 50 people would be allowed to return to Gaza each day, and 50 medical patients (along with two companions each) would be allowed to leave, but so far far fewer people have crossed in both directions.

The Rafah crossing, an essential lifeline for Palestinians in Gaza, was the only one in the Palestinian territory that was not controlled by Israel before the war. Israel seized the Palestinian side of Rafah in May 2024, although traffic through the crossing was heavily restricted even before that.