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In 2013, when Egypt was ruled by late president Mohammed Morsi, a Muslim Brotherhood member less hostile to Hamas, a record half a million Palestinians crossed through Rafah.īut numbers fell dramatically after Morsi's ouster in July of that year.
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There was a brief period in the Hamas era when transit through Rafah was easier. Palestinians wait their turn to cross into Egypt through the Rafah border crossing Palestinians are forced to register their names on a waiting list weeks before they plan to travel, and still transit is not guaranteed SAID KHATIB AFP This has bred frustration towards Egyptians perceived to be profiting from the trade. To be assured of travel, Palestinians have in recent years resorted to paying hundreds or even thousands of dollars to private companies and middlemen offering the "VIP" services. Palestinians are forced to register their names on a waiting list weeks before they plan to travel, and still transit is not guaranteed. That means that for most of Gaza's people, the Rafah crossing to Egypt offers the best route out.īut it is notorious for being, all too often, a costly and bureaucratic nightmare. The Erez crossing to Israel is restricted to Palestinians with permits to work or trade inside Israel, some serious medical cases, and some people with onward transit permits to Jordan. This leaves only two ways out of the territory: tightly-controlled land crossings through Israel and Egypt. Israel also does not permit passenger ferries to dock at Gaza's Mediterranean ports. The Yasser Arafat International Airport was bombed by Israel at the start of the second Palestinian intifada, the uprising of 2000 to 2005, and goats now graze on its defunct runway. The route from Gaza to Cairo Eléonore HUGHES AFP The Jewish state argues this is necessary to protect itself from a group labelled a terrorist organisation by much of the West.
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Israel, which used to occupy Gaza, has maintained a strict land and sea blockade on the enclave since Hamas took it over in 2007. Gaza, an impoverished territory of some two million people, where Hamas fought its most recent war with Israel in May, is a difficult place to enter or leave. "On the Egyptian side, they are applying more and more pressure to make the return to Gaza difficult, trying to push people to pay for the VIP service the next time." Blockaded enclave "It's a disaster for the Palestinians," said one industry source, speaking on condition of anonymity, who estimated the business is worth up to $175,000 per day. The common complaint in Gaza is that the journey, often made on stuffy buses, is made deliberately more arduous and uncertain so that travel operators can profit by offering hassle-free "VIP services" to those who can afford them. The 380 kilometre (240 mile) road trip to Cairo passes though the sweltering deserts of the Sinai peninsula, where the Egyptian army fights the Islamic State group and operates checkpoints and night-time curfews. He quickly took down the social media post - but it had already earned dozens of supportive comments, reflecting widespread frustration about Gaza's main lifeline to the outside world. The caller said the border business was "a very sensitive subject for the Egyptians, and that my article was going to harm Palestinians," said Sawaf, a political analyst. "Someone from Hamas called and told me to erase everything," Sawaf said, referring to the Islamist group that runs the Israeli-blockaded coastal strip.