The European Union will restart a civilian mission to monitor the border crossing between Gaza and Egypt at Rafah, the bloc’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said on Monday.

The European Union is ready to redeploy its border assistance mission at the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt, Kaja Kallas, the European Union's foreign affairs chief, said on Monday. The civilian mission was launched in 2005 to assist with trade facilitation and the processing of biometric passports but was suspended in 2007 when Hamas took

The 27-nation bloc set up a civilian mission in 2005 to help monitor the crossing, but it was suspended two years later after the militant Islamist group Hamas took control of Gaza.

For the EU Border Assistance Mission in Rafah to effectively restart it needed a cessation of hostilities between terrorist organisation Hamas and Israel, which happened on 15 January when the two parties to the conflict signed a ceasefire, which then entered into force on 19 January.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union is in talks to revive a civilian mission to monitor the border crossing between Gaza and Egypt at Rafah following the announcement of the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said.