UN warns Palestinians it is leaving Rafah coordination
According to Drop Site News, which cited a senior Palestinian official, the United Nations will stop receiving those returning from Egypt to Gaza in mid-November 2026, citing risks to returnees and repeated Israeli arrests. The UN has not confirmed the decision, which could stall medical evacuations, because the agreement requires the number of departures to equal the number of returns.
The United Nations has told Palestinian authorities that, as of mid-November 2026, it will stop receiving Palestinians returning from Egypt and coordinating their entry into the Gaza Strip, citing the risks returnees face and the repeated Israeli arrests along the way. The information comes from Drop Site News, which attributed it to a senior Palestinian official involved in the negotiations and did not identify which UN agency made the decision. When contacted, the UN had not responded as of the publication of this report, and the Middle East Eye covered the story citing the same outlet.
The sentence that measures the scale of the withdrawal comes from the negotiator himself: “The United Nations will ask the parties to designate an alternative entity to take over this responsibility; however, the withdrawal will proceed regardless of whether a replacement is found.” Finding that replacement is the next problem. Transporting returnees requires coordination with Israel and passage through dangerous areas inside the zones of the Yellow and Red Lines, the strips where Israeli forces are stationed. The International Committee of the Red Cross may be the only alternative available, and its office in Gaza has already declined the task, considering it outside its mandate.
What prompted the decision
The last straw was the arrest of two women. On October 20, 2026, Israeli forces detained Amal Ghazi Mohammed al-Rifi, 60, who has cancer, and her daughter, Yasmin Ref’at Mohammed al-Rifi, 33, as the two returned to Gaza through the Rafah crossing after treatment at Aswan Hospital in Egypt, according to the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights. The Days of Palestine outlet reported the same episode and added that the family does not know which Israeli agency is holding the two women or whether the patient has access to her medication. The crossing had reopened that very day, after about 10 days of suspension caused by the detention of another returnee.
The cost of this is greater than two lives, however much two lives are enough. Nearly all Palestinians leaving Gaza through Rafah are patients in medical evacuation and their companions. The UN will continue facilitating departures, but the decision to stop receiving those returning could affect the entire operation of the crossing, because the negotiated agreement requires the number of people authorized to return to equal the number authorized to leave. If no one can return, Egypt may stop accepting departing patients, and the Palestinian negotiator sums up the possible outcome: “the entire process is blocked.”
The five-stage gauntlet
What exists today at Rafah was described in detail by the Anadolu Agency, based on returnees’ testimony and human rights reports. The route has five stages: the Egyptian side, the Palestinian Authority, representatives of the European Union (EU), a militia operating with Israeli support, and Israeli soldiers. Along this route, according to the UN human rights office, returnees reported being handcuffed, blindfolded, searched, threatened, and having their belongings confiscated, and some said they had been offered money to give up returning or to act as informants. The office warned that the totality of these practices raises serious concern about coercive measures intended to discourage return and may amount to ethnic cleansing. The Israeli organizations Adalah and Gisha sent an urgent letter to Defense Minister Israel Katz and Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara demanding an end to what they called a policy of abuse and illegal restrictions, and characterized the situation as forced displacement.
While the UN was receiving returnees, the return existed as an administrative procedure, with a stage, a queue, and someone in charge.
Official figures from the Palestinian side show a pipeline that has nearly stopped. According to the Gaza government’s Press Office, 488 people out of 1,800 managed to cross Rafah in both directions between the reopening and October 20, a rate of about 27%: 275 left, 213 entered, and 26 were denied departure.
Who administers the return
The UN was the last civilian layer over a military checkpoint. While it was receiving returnees, the return existed as an administrative procedure, with a stage, a queue, and someone in charge. From mid-November 2026 onward, anyone wanting to enter Gaza through Rafah will depend on an entity that does not yet exist, on Israel’s consent at every stage of the route, and on Egypt’s willingness to keep receiving patients without any guarantee that they will be able to return. The crossing continues operating for departures, which means the Strip can still export the sick and no longer imports people.
The decision came out of an office, after two arrests, and its effect is the withdrawal of the only body that kept the passage working in both directions. Whoever controls the roads between the Yellow and Red Lines thereby gains the power to decide who enters without having to sign any expulsion order.