Forty-one Palestinians arrived in Gaza through the Rafah crossing on Tuesday evening, marking the seventh group to return since its partial reopening earlier this month. They were transported on World Health Organization buses to the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis, according to an Al Jazeera team on the ground. Returnees reported harsh searches and interrogations by the Israeli military, the authority controlling the Palestinian side of the crossing. The Rafah crossing, Gaza’s only exit and entry point for over two million people, was mostly closed during the ongoing war and partially reopened on February 2 as part of a U.S.-brokered ceasefire deal. Since reopening, 172 Palestinians have returned while only 250 people, mostly patients needing urgent medical care and their companions, have left. The pace of these medical evacuations is much slower than the agreed 50 patients per day, leaving Gaza’s health system strained. Gaza’s health ministry reports 22 hospitals out of service and 1,700 medical workers killed in the war. Despite the ceasefire, Israeli airstrikes and artillery shelling continue almost daily. On Wednesday, attacks hit areas east of Khan Younis. The day before, at least seven Palestinians were killed by Israeli strikes in Gaza, including three in central Gaza and one north of Khan Younis. Meanwhile, Israel has approved the forced expulsion of two Palestinians convicted of attacks in Israel to Gaza, based on a controversial law passed in February 2023. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed he signed deportation orders for Mahmoud Ahmad and Mohammed Ahmad Hussein al-Halsi. Netanyahu wrote on X, "I thank the coalition leader [Ofir Katz] for leading the law that will expel them from the State of Israel, and many more like them are on the way." The two men will be sent to Gaza after finishing their sentences. Rights group Adalah condemned the deportations as a violation of citizenship rights, saying, "These deportation orders allow Palestinian citizens of Israel to be physically exiled from their homeland," and that the move breaks international laws against statelessness. Al Jazeera’s Nour Odeh explained the men could lose their Jerusalem IDs, leaving them unable to access hospitals, schools, or official services, effectively erasing their identities.