Israel says it will maintain control of the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip during the first phase of the ceasefire with Hamas.

Israel has confirmed that it will maintain control over the Rafah border crossing, the key passage between Egypt and the Gaza Strip.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Wednesday that Israel will remain in control of the Rafah crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt throughout the first phase of the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas.

The ceasefire has enabled thousands of people to return to their places of origin, but many are met with nothing more than a mountain of rubble where their homes once stood

After a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas was announced, buildings reduced to rubble were all that was left for thousands of displaced Palestinians in Gaza.

More than 1,500 trucks with humanitarian aid have entered the Gaza Strip in the first two days of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said 897 aid trucks entered the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, the third day of a ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian militants Hamas.