This is The Guardian.

The Rafa crossing is the only way to get in and out of Gaza that doesn't go through Israel.

It's kind of Gaza's artery to the world.

The rafa crossing between Gaza and Egypt has been partially

reopened after being closed for nearly two years. A few Palestinians have now crossed into

Egypt for medical treatment. And what we saw was really a symbolic opening. I think nothing

to even begin to meet both the need for people to seek medical treatment outside Gaza

and the desire of Palestinians

to go back to their families and their homes, devastated as they are.

A small number of medical evacuees have been able to leave Gaza via the newly reopened Rafa crossing.

So is this a step forward in the fragile ceasefire?

From the Guardians today in Focus, this is the latest with me, Lucy Hoff.

Joining me is Emma Graham Harrison, the Guardian's chief Middle East correspondent.

Yesterday, the Rafa crossing, the crossing from Egypt into the Gaza Strip,

reopened for the first time in two years.

There was supposed to be a transfer of 150 patients

needing urgent medical care from the strip to Egypt and 50 Palestinians were supposed to be able

to return home to the Gaza Strip. But what actually happened? The Rafa crossing is the only way to get in and out of Gaza that doesn't go

through Israel. So it's kind of Gaza's artery to the world and it's been closed since May

2024. That means that there's really been almost no way into or out of Gaza for anyone. We focus

on people who are medical need patients but you know that know, that also means, for instance, students who want to study, people who in a war zone, it's hard to think about, but, you know, if you have a job offer somewhere else, just it's been impossible to get out. It's also been impossible to get in. You know, obviously there's many, perhaps more people we think of who'd want to leave than want to go in. But one of the people who was interviewed yesterday

was a mother who'd left Gaza with one of her children who was injured

...