The EU’s top diplomat has said the civilian mission can play a “decisive role” in supporting the Gaza ceasefire. Euronews breaks down what we know about its mandate and operations.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00What do we know about the EU's Rafah border mission?
00:07The European Union is reviving its mission on the border crossing in Rafah in southern Gaza,
00:14a move it says can play a decisive role in supporting the ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel.
00:21Ceasefire is fragile but it's holding.
00:24We are supporting its implementation including the redeploying our civilian mission to Rafah.
00:30The Rafah crossing is the only major point of entry into the Gaza Strip from a territory other than Israel.
00:36It links to neighbouring Egypt.
00:38It's been closed since May last year when Israel seized the crossing as part of its war on Hamas.
00:45It meant trucks carrying critical aid were diverted to another crossing linking Gaza with Israel in Kerem Shalom.
00:53This restricted the amount of critical aid reaching civilians in the enclave and exacerbated a deepening humanitarian crisis.
01:02As part of phase one of the ceasefire deal currently in force, the Rafah crossing will reopen
01:08and 600 trucks are expected to cross into Gaza every day.
01:13The EU's border mission, known as U-Bam Rafah, is expected to oversee the passage of aid-carrying trucks
01:20and ensure injured and sick civilians requiring treatment are safely evacuated to hospitals in Egypt and abroad.
01:28The mission will include around 30 officers from France's Gendarmerie, Italy's Carabinieri and Spain's Guardia Civil.
01:35They're essentially police officers and are not armed.
01:38While the mission's deployment has instilled hope for a surge in medical evacuations and the flow of humanitarian aid,
01:45EU officials have described the arrangements as fragile.
01:49The mission will be in place for the first phase of the ceasefire only, which expires on March 2.
01:55Its future beyond that date is still uncertain.