Israel reopening Gaza’s border crossing with Egypt on Sunday after long closure

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel said Friday that it will reopen the pedestrian border crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt over the weekend, marking an important step forward for U.S. President Donald Trump’s Gaza ceasefire plan.

COGAT, the Israeli military body in charge of coordinating aid to Gaza, said in a statement that starting on Sunday a “limited movement of people only” would be allowed through the Rafah crossing, Gaza’s main gateway to the outside world.

The announcement followed statements from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Ali Shaath, newly appointed to head the Palestinian administrative committee governing Gaza’s daily affairs, that it would likely open soon.

How the crossing will operate after nearly two years of closure remains unclear.

While COGAT said the passage will open in both directions on Sunday, Shaath said the first day will be a trial for operations and that travel both ways will start Monday.

COGAT said both Israel and Egypt will vet individuals for exit and entry through the crossing, which will be supervised by European Union border patrol agents. In addition to screenings at the crossing, Palestinians leaving and returning will be screened by Israel in the adjacent corridor, which remains under Israeli military control.

The crossing has been under a near complete closure since Israel seized it in May 2024, saying the step was part of a strategy to halt cross-border arms smuggling by Hamas. It was briefly opened for the evacuation of medical patients during a short-lived ceasefire in early 2025.

Israel had resisted reopening the crossing, but the recovery of the remains of the last hostage in Gaza on Monday cleared the way to move forward. A day later, Netanyahu said the crossing would soon open in a limited and controlled fashion.

Thousands of Palestinians inside Gaza are trying to leave the war-battered territory, while tens of thousands who fled the territory during the heaviest fighting say they want to return home.

An Israeli official who spoke on condition of anonymity in accordance with policy told The Associated Press that dozens of Palestinians would initially be allowed through each way, starting with medical evacuees and Palestinians who fled during the war.

Gaza’s health system was decimated in the war, rendering advanced surgical procedures out of reach. Roughly 20,000 sick and wounded Palestinians need treatment outside Gaza, according to the territory’s health ministry. In the past, those prioritized for evacuation have been mostly children, cancer patients and people suffering from physical trauma.

The reopening is one of the first steps in the second phase of last year's U.S.-brokered ceasefire agreement, which includes challenging issues ranging from demilitarizing Gaza to putting in place an alternative government to oversee rebuilding the mostly destroyed enclave.

Netanyahu said this week that Israel's focus is on disarming Hamas and destroying its remaining tunnels. Without these steps, he said that there would be no reconstruction in Gaza, a stance that could make Israel’s control over Rafah a key point of leverage.

Palestinians in Gaza on Friday mourned friends and relatives who died earlier this week in Israeli strikes, which have slowed but not stopped since the return of the remains of the final hostage held in the territory.

Three Palestinians were laid to rest in traditional Islamic funeral rites. Men gathered to pay their final respects, carrying the shrouded bodies through the streets before praying over them.

Israel’s military said four people were killed in airstrikes Friday in central Gaza, saying they were armed and approaching troops near the ceasefire line dividing Israeli-held areas and most of Gaza’s Palestinian population.

The most recent deaths Friday are on top of the 492 Palestinians killed since the ceasefire began in October, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. The ministry doesn’t distinguish between civilians and combatants in its figures. It maintains detailed casualty records that are seen as generally reliable by U.N. agencies and independent experts.

Associated Press journalist Toqa Ezzidin in Cairo contributed to this report.

Find more of AP’s coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war

Palestinians mourn over the bodies of people who were killed in an Israeli strike, before their funeral at Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, Friday, Jan. 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Palestinians mourn over the body of Waleed Darweesh, 20, who was killed in an Israeli strike, during his funeral at Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, Friday, Jan. 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Trucks line up to enter the Egyptian gate of the Rafah crossing, heading for inspection by Israeli authorities before entering the Gaza Strip, Tuesday, Jan.27, 2026. (AP Photo/Mohamed Arafat)

A truck enters the Egyptian gate of the Rafah crossing, heading for inspection by Israeli authorities before entering the Gaza Strip, Tuesday, Jan. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Mohamed Arafat)

MIAMI (AP) — Florida won’t be getting hit with massive blankets of snow and ice like the rest of the U.S., but even frosty windshields and a few flurries can feel like Antarctica to people with permanent sandal tans.

The Midwest and South have been getting major winter storms for several days, and a giant cyclone forecast in the Atlantic Ocean is expected to pull that cold weather east as a powerful blizzard this weekend. The worst seems to be heading toward the Carolinas, but the Sunshine State's humans, animals and even plants are preparing for winter weather.

Ana Torres-Vazquez, a forecaster with the National Weather Service in Miami, said a cold front earlier this week has already caused temperatures to dip some, but the region could experience record-setting cold this weekend.

“It looks like temperatures across South Florida are dipping into the 30s (Fahrenheit) for most of the metro area and maybe into the 20s for areas near Lake Okeechobee,” Torres-Vazquez said. “And then the windchill could make those temperatures feel even cooler.”

Residents of South Florida are less likely to have heavy coats and other winter clothes, so Torres-Vazquez said it's important to layer up lighter clothing and limit time spent outside.

Moving north, Tony Hurt, a National Weather Service forecaster for the Tampa Bay area, said there’s a 10 to 20% chance of snowfall in that region this weekend.

“Most likely if there’s any snow that does actually materialize, it’ll be primarily in the form of flurries, no accumulations,” Hurt said.

The last two times the area got snow was flurries in January 2010 and December 1989. The record for snowfall was in January 1977, with 2 inches (5 centimeters) of snow about 20 miles (32 kilometers) east of Tampa.

Despite the possibility of snow, Tampa will host the annual Gasparilla Pirate Fest on Saturday. And on Sunday, the Tampa Bay Lightning are set to host the Boston Bruins for an outdoor NHL game at the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' home NFL stadium.

Few tourists visiting Florida will be swimming in the ocean or laying out on sunny beaches this weekend, but many attractions will remain open. Most of Walt Disney World and Universal Orlando will operate normally, though their water parks will be closed. Most of the state's zoos and animal parks will also remain open while keepers take steps to protect the inhabitants.

Zoo Miami spokesman Ron Magill said keepers have been setting up heaters and moving reptiles and smaller mammals to indoor enclosures, while primates like chimpanzees and orangutans are given blankets to keep themselves warm. Big cats and large hoofed animals generally do well in colder temperatures and don't require much assistance from keepers.

“It can be invigorating for animals like the tiger, so they’ll actually become more active,” Magill said.

Outside the safety of the zoo, Florida's native wildlife has evolved and learned to survive occasional cold snaps, though casualties will still occur, Magill said. Manatees, for example, have spent decades congregating at the warm-water outflows of about a dozen power plants around Florida.

But invasive, nonnative animals like iguanas and other exotic reptiles will suffer the most. Iguanas in South Florida famously enter a torpid state during cold periods and even fall out of trees.

“I think in South Florida you're going to see iguanas falling from trees, I mean a lot, once it gets under 40 degrees,” DeSantis said Friday at a news conference in Vero Beach. “In some of these places, it's going to be in the 20s and 30s.”

The iguanas usually wake up when the temperature increases, but many will die after more than a day of extreme cold.

“At the end of the day, they don’t belong here, and that might be nature’s way of trying to clean that up a little bit,” Magill said. “That is a part of natural selection.”

Florida's agriculture industry is also bracing for the cold. Farmers are working to safeguard their crops as winter harvest continues and spring planting begins in some areas, Florida Fruit & Vegetable Association spokeswoman Christina Morton said.

“Preparations vary by crop and include harvesting and planting ahead of the freeze, increasing water levels in ditches, using overhead irrigation, and, in some cases, deploying helicopters to protect sensitive fields,” Morton said.

The biggest concern for Florida's citrus growers was temperature below 28 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 2.2 Celsius) for more than four hours since that is when damage occurs. Citrus grower Trevor Murphy, who has groves in the interior of the state, said he planned to turn on his irrigation system when the thermometer hits just above freezing to create a protective layer of ice on the trees and also fog, which helps warm the groves.

“We are about as ready as we are going to be,” Murphy said Friday. “We will see Sunday or Monday what Mother Nature throws at us.”

The Florida deep freeze comes as the arctic blast from Canada also spreads into southern states where thousands of people remain without power to heat their homes, and people in mid-Atlantic states prepare for possible blizzard conditions as a new storm is expected to churn along the East Coast.

Temperatures in hard-hit northern Mississippi will feel as cold as minus 5 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 21 degrees Celsius) when the winds are factored in, National Weather Service forecasters say. People in a large part of the southeastern U.S. were under a variety of alerts warning of extremely cold weather on the way.

The storm expected to hit the Eastern Seaboard has prompted more warnings in the Carolinas and nearby states. That storm is expected to bring heavy snow and strong winds, which could create “dangerous, near-blizzard conditions,” the weather service warned.

Mike Schneider in Orlando, Florida contributed to this report.

Beachgoers brave the cold ocean temperature while walking on a sandbar Thursday, Jan. 29, 2026, in Miami Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)

Robert Minion and his friend James Denburg of MA., take advantage of the cool weather to play beach tennis Thursday, Jan. 29, 2026, in Miami Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)

A bundled up Lucia Amato, of Argentina, sits on the shore while waiting for a friend in Miami Beach, Fla., Thursday, Jan. 29, 2026.A bundled up (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)