Rafah exemplifies Israel’s ‘absolute control’ over Palestinian lives
For people crossing through Rafah, the trips have been humiliating. There were strip searches and interrogations, but now there are even more extreme elements. We’re hearing about people being blindfolded, having their hands tied, and being interrogated.
The semantics of it sound sterile, but when we talk about security screening, and a person needing urgent medical care, that person is basically being denied medical attention. And that’s really at the heart of it – the absolute control Israel has over everybody’s life.
Meanwhile, the ability for other categories of people to cross is on hold, including students wishing to study abroad who, for the most part, studied during the Gaza genocide. They were trying to survive and finish their schooling at the same time.
They looked for an internet signal during the war. They submitted their exams and projects despite being displaced from one place to another.
And they made it, got accepted into universities and got scholarships. But they’re nowhere near the queue of people wanting to leave Gaza. More than 20,000 people need to leave urgently for medical care to save their lives.
Palestinian officials tell me up to 30,000 Palestinians have requested to return to Gaza – people who left during the war. They’re not getting the clearance to come back in.
Treatment of Palestinians crossing Rafah ‘collective punishment’: Hamas
The “mistreatment, abuse, and deliberate extortion” suffered by Palestinians returning to Gaza through the Rafah crossing “constitutes fascist behaviour and organised terrorism” and amounts to “collective punishment”, says Hamas.
“Painful field testimonies have revealed degrading practices including the abduction of women from among the travellers, blindfolding them, subjecting them to lengthy interrogations with irrelevant questions, threatening some with their children, and attempting to extort one of them into collaborating,” the Palestinian group said.
“This confirms that what is happening is not ‘crossing procedures’ but rather systematic violations aimed at instilling fear and deterring people from returning to their homes.”
Hamas urged international human rights organisations to document the alleged violations.
The long-awaited reopening of the territory’s southern border crossing with Egypt was supposed to alleviate the punishing military siege of Gaza. Instead, Israeli authorities continue with tight security restrictions and a complex bureaucratic process that allows only a small number of people to travel in either direction.
Palestinians say Israel confiscating personal belongings
As thousands of people try to get back to their homes and families in the besieged Gaza Strip, accounts are emerging of Israeli authorities stripping travellers of their possessions.
“They didn’t let us cross with anything,” Rotana al-Regeb said as she returned at midnight to Khan Younis in the south. “They emptied everything before letting us through. We were only allowed to take the clothes on our backs and one bag per person.”
Samira Said described the lengthy return process as “very difficult”. “They searched all of our belongings, especially at Israeli checkpoints. We were searched several times,” she said.
