EU top diplomat Kaja Kallas Thursday welcomed an Israeli decision to extend the mandate of the bloc's border assistance mission at the Rafah crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt until mid-2027. Initially set up in 2005 to help monitor the key crossing, the civilian EUBAM mission was put on standby for nearly two decades after the Hamas group took control of Gaza in 2007. The Rafah crossing shut down entirely during Israel's war with Hamas, but has reopened on a limited basis since February with monitors from the EU, which announced last week that more than 10,000 people had since passed between Gaza and Egypt. Kallas said Israeli authorities had agreed to extend until the end of June 2027 the mandates of both the Rafah monitoring mission and the EUPOL COPPS scheme that provides training for Palestinian police forces and advice on rebuilding Gaza's judicial system. The EU foreign policy chief called it "an important step after months of diplomatic negotiations." "The missions have a clear purpose: to help make crossings safer and more effective, support Palestinian police, and contribute to stability in the region," she wrote on X. Contacted by AFP, the Israeli foreign ministry had yet to respond. The EUBAM monitoring mission aims to provide a neutral, third-party presence at the Rafah crossing and involves police from Italy, Spain and France. Israel had been expected to renew the authorization for the mission's deployment in late June, but EU-Israeli ties have come under heavy strain since the start of the Gaza war. The green light clears the way for EU states to formally extend the missions' mandates, which they agreed in June to prolong until September this year.
