The Trump administration expects that Israel will reopen the Rafah Border Crossing in the coming days to both the entry and exit of Gazans after US President Donald Trump and his aides raised the issue during their meetings in Florida with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a US official has told The Times of Israel.
While the crossing was supposed to reopen as part of the October Gaza ceasefire agreement, Israel has only been willing to comply if the gate is used exclusively for the exit of Palestinians until the body of the final hostage, police Master Sgt. Ran Gvili, is returned.
Egypt, in turn, has kept the Rafah crossing closed, arguing that Jerusalem is trying to dilute the Strip’s population by not letting anyone back in.
Coming under pressure from the Trump administration, Netanyahu raised the idea of reopening Rafah in both directions before his cabinet last week. However, he faced pushback from far-right ministers who have throughout the war called to encourage the migration of Gazans from the Strip.
According to Channel 12 news, Israel plans to move ahead with the full reopening of Rafah when Netanyahu returns from the US on Friday, with an Israeli official telling the network that Jerusalem does not want to be seen as the party that is blocking the implementation of Trump’s Gaza peace plan.
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Also Wednesday, IDF chief Eyal Zamir said that as 2025 came to an end, Israel remains determined to disarm the Hamas terror group. He described 2026 as a “decisive year” for Israel’s security.
Zamir visited troops in Gaza on Wednesday, days after Israeli Netanyahu raised the issue of Hamas disarmament in talks with Trump.
“The year 2026 will be a decisive year in shaping the security reality of the State of Israel. Our determination to disarm Hamas of its weapons is absolute,” Zamir told troops.
“We will not allow the Hamas terrorist organization to rebuild its capabilities and threaten us,” he added.
IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir speaks at a senior command conference discussing investigations into the failures surrounding Hamas’s October 7, 2023, onslaught and the subsequent war, December 29, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)
Releasing a year-end summary of its operations in 2025 on Wednesday, the military said that in Gaza, nearly 14,000 terror targets were hit, including weapons depots and command facilities. Dozens of senior Hamas commanders were eliminated, among them brigade, battalion and company-level leaders.
Trump and Netanyahu presented a united front on Monday after the two discussed several issues as part of crucial talks on moving to the next stage of the fragile Gaza truce plan, including the disarmament of Hamas.
“If they don’t disarm as they agreed to do, then there will be hell to pay for them,” Trump told reporters after the two leaders met. “They have to disarm in a fairly short period of time.”
Hamas has repeatedly said it would not surrender its weapons.
Hamas terrorists guard an area where they are searching for the bodies of hostages with the help of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Gaza City on November 3, 2025. (Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP)
Since October 10, a truce in Gaza has largely halted the fighting between Israeli forces and Hamas, but some White House officials fear both are slow-walking the second stage of the ceasefire.
Under the second stage, Israel is supposed to gradually withdraw from its positions in Gaza, while Hamas is supposed to lay down its weapons.
An interim authority is meant to govern the territory, and an international stabilization force (ISF) is to be deployed.
Both sides have alleged frequent ceasefire violations.
More deaths reported in Gaza
On Wednesday, Hamas’s health ministry said Gaza hospitals had received the body of one person killed by IDF gunfire over the past 48 hours, as well as two bodies of Gazans killed before that period.
The ministry did not identify the people or specify where or when they were killed.
Palestinian media reported Tuesday that the body of an 11-year-old girl, Dana Muqat, was brought to Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital after she was shot dead by the IDF on the Hamas-controlled side of the Gaza ceasefire line in Gaza City’s eastern Tuffah neighborhood. The IDF has not commented on the reports.
استشهاد الطفلة “دانا حسين مقاط” برصاص الاحتلال الصهيوني في منطقة الزرقا، قرب حي التفاح، شمال شرق مدينة #غزة. pic.twitter.com/RGTxWXvO1d
— Talal Ibrahim (@Talal81ibrahim) December 31, 2025
Gaza hospitals have also received 10 people wounded by IDF gunfire over the past 48 hours, the Hamas health ministry said. It did not specify where the people were wounded or the severity of their injuries.
In addition, the ministry said two people, including a four-year-old girl, had been killed by structural collapse due to heavy rainfall since noon on Monday. It did not say where or precisely when they were killed.
Palestinian media reported Tuesday that a young girl, Eilaf Barbakh, was killed and three others wounded after a wall collapsed on tents housing displaced Palestinians next to a Red Cross hospital near Rafah.
استشهاد طفلة وإصابة عدد من النازحين إثر انهيار جدار على خيام النازحين قرب مستشفى الصليب الأحمر الميداني في مواصي مدينة رفح، جنوب قطاع #غزة pic.twitter.com/9jd2OZq3Jt
— Talal Ibrahim (@Talal81ibrahim) December 31, 2025
A man was also said to have been killed Monday afternoon from the collapse of a wall on a tent in Tel al-Hawa, in southern Gaza City. The man could not immediately be identified.
In total, 19 Gazans have been killed by structural collapse due to heavy rainfall this winter, the Hamas ministry said.
Hamas’s civil defense agency has warned displaced Palestinian not to shelter from the rain in buildings damaged by bombing.
The UN reported in October that over half of Gaza’s structures were destroyed in the war between Hamas and Israel, and that roughly 40% of the remaining structures are severely or moderately damaged.
Hundreds of thousands of displaced Gazans face flooding of their tents and shelters by heavy rains, and aid groups charge that materials for shelters and sandbags are not being allowed to enter the enclave.
COGAT, the Israeli Defense Ministry body that oversees aid to Gaza, has denied the allegations, saying it has let in hundreds of thousands of tents and tarpaulins and is waiting for international organizations to let in close to 100,000 pallets of “water-related items.”
Wednesday also saw troops operating in northern Gaza uncover a loaded rocket launcher “ready to fire” toward Israel, during ongoing efforts to dismantle terror infrastructure in the area, the army said.
A rocket launcher discovered by IDF troops in north Gaza’s Beit Hanoun area, December 31, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)
According to the military, combat teams from the Gaza Division’s Northern Brigade located the launcher during a weapons-search operation in the Beit Hanoun area, near the so-called Yellow Line. The launcher was found loaded with five rockets.
A security source noted that the launcher was likely an old one and would be destroyed by troops.
The military said forces remain deployed in the area in accordance with the ceasefire framework and will continue acting to remove any “immediate threats.”
