Cairo works the Rafah file through readouts and visitors as returns stay near 7,000

Badr Abdelatty, Egypt’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, International Cooperation and Egyptian Expatriates, met Christophe Bigot, the European Union Special Representative for the Middle East Peace Process, on Friday 13 November to discuss the Gaza ceasefire and the second phase of the peace plan. The account of the meeting comes from Egypt’s State Information Service — a government primary document rather than independent reporting — and no EU-side readout was retrieved. The readout carried no verbatim quotation and did not define what the second phase consists of, or whether it refers to the Board of Peace and International Stabilization Force architecture created by UN Security Council Resolution 2803, adopted on 17 November 2025 after the United States circulated the text on 3 November, or to the bilateral ceasefire track Cairo brokers directly. The resolution’s first anniversary falls on Tuesday.

The flow Egypt actually controls is countable, and it is modest. OCHA’s humanitarian situation report for the occupied Palestinian territory dated 13 November 2026 puts cumulative returnees through Rafah since the crossing reopened in February at over 7,000, of whom more than 2,000 are receiving protection follow-up including initial needs assessments. Between 3 and 9 November the Protection Cluster supported 215 returnees with psychosocial support. The same report records shelters flooded by rain in Gaza this month. Separately, Daily Sabah — a Turkish state-aligned outlet — reported on 12 November that the Formula 1 driver Lewis Hamilton visited the Rafah crossing on 10 November accompanied by North Sinai Governor Khaled Megawer, and afterwards urged Israel to open aid routes into Gaza. The advocacy outlet Palestine Uncensored characterises the crossing’s operation since February as intermittent, with abrupt closures in both directions; that characterisation has no wire or UN corroboration here.

Assessment: The governor of North Sinai does not escort a racing driver to a border post by accident. The visit, the ministerial readout and the undefined “second phase” are the same instrument: Cairo positioning itself as the facilitator at Rafah and Israel as the obstruction, in the week before 2803 turns one and the stabilisation architecture is reviewed. Distrust the framing in both directions. The Egyptian account is single-sourced to the Egyptian state; the Turkish account has its own stake in the aid narrative. The OCHA figure is the only number here not generated by an interested party, and roughly 7,000 returns in nine months is a small door, held narrowly open.