The border was open for a while, but it was a very small crack. Just over a hundred Palestinians managed to cross the border at Rafah on Monday and Tuesday. This concerns 52 people who went from Egypt back to Gaza, and 21 patients plus 42 escorts in the other direction. The border was closed on Wednesday, but Israel has not said when it will reopen.
Israel opened the border on Monday, beginning to fulfill an agreement with Hamas made last October. It was expected that about one hundred and fifty to two hundred Palestinians could return to Gaza per day, and about the same number of patients from Gaza could seek treatment in Egypt.
For the time being there are much fewer. Israel subjects both groups to strict controls. The women and children who returned to Gaza had to go through an hours-long procedure. They reported being blindfolded and handcuffed, interrogated and having their belongings confiscated.
In the months after October 7, 2023, the Rafah border crossing was the only option for Palestinians to escape the violence of war. In May 2024, Israel took control of the border crossing. After that, it was sometimes only possible for Palestinians to leave Gaza by paying large amounts of money.
Many parents with children in Gaza and Egypt face a hellish dilemma, says the director of Save the Children
Palestinians do not dare to return
There are an estimated 130,000 Palestinians in Egypt, many of whom want to return to Gaza. However, many Palestinians in Egypt are afraid to go back, says Nadia Mohammed, director at Save the Children in Egypt, by telephone from Cairo. Her organization provides support to traumatized children there, among other things. “After all, Israel is still bombing Gaza.”
On Wednesday morning, international news agencies reported that Israel had killed nineteen Palestinians. According to the Israeli army, the attacks were in response to shelling by five Palestinian militants that wounded one Israeli soldier.
Wednesday’s attacks mainly killed women and children, Palestinian hospitals said. For example, two parents and their ten-day-old daughter were reportedly killed during shelling of a building in northern Gaza. According to the Gaza Health Ministry, Israel has killed more than 530 Palestinians since the ceasefire – according to the Israeli army in response to shelling by Hamas.
Also read
Israeli smear campaign ‘could cost many Palestinians their lives’, Doctors Without Borders warns
Another barrier to Palestinians returning to Gaza, Mohammed says, is that many of them are receiving medical treatment in Egypt. They cannot always continue this in Gaza, where many hospitals have been closed after Israeli attacks.
Some have children in Gaza and children who have to stay in Egypt for treatment. The patients cannot return, the children in Gaza cannot come to Egypt either. That is “a hellish dilemma” for many parents, says Mohammed.
Israel puts up bureaucratic obstacles
Israel also creates bureaucratic obstacles, says Mohammed. For example, Palestinian babies born in Egypt are not allowed into Gaza; Israel does not consider them as lawful residents of Palestinian territory.
For example, the situation at the border between Gaza and Egypt leads to more dire cases. Grandparents in Egypt with a grandchild in Gaza whose parents were killed cannot visit each other. People who went to Egypt without their children to undergo medical treatment just before October 7, 2023, have been separated from their families for two years and are now not allowed to return; the return scheme only applies to people who left Gaza after October 7.
Save the Children monitors the situation at the border, but cannot influence the passage of Palestinians. On the other side of the border, in Gaza, Israel’s organization will no longer be allowed to operate from the end of this month: it is one of 37 NGOs whose registration Israel has withdrawn.
Despite the Israeli ban, Save the Children intends to continue its work in Gaza, for example by trying to get relief supplies into Gaza. There are also still local Palestinian employees working in Gaza who are active in child protection and mental health care, among other things.
The journalistic principles of NRC
