Khan Younis, Gaza Strip – When Rotana al-Raqab discovered that her title and her mom’s had been included on the primary checklist of Palestinians allowed to return to Gaza via the Rafah crossing, she felt, briefly, that the lengthy months she had spent stranded in Egypt had been lastly coming to an finish.
However what she initially believed could be a path again to her 5 youngsters as an alternative was a gruelling ordeal of hours of ready, physique searches, interrogations, and humiliating therapy by the hands of Israeli forces.
Beneficial Tales
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Rotana, 31, left Gaza final March along with her mom, Huda Abu Abed, 56, looking for pressing medical therapy after being instructed she wanted a significant coronary heart operation.
They left behind Rotana’s six youngsters with relations, who on the time had been displaced within the al-Mawasi space of Khan Younis.
All through the separation, Rotana says the worry of what was occurring at dwelling – as Israel continued its genocidal conflict on Gaza – by no means left her.
“All that point, I used to be on edge, ready for the crossing to open in order that I may return to my youngsters,” she instructed Al Jazeera.
“My husband was injured in an Israeli strike, and I used to be practically going mad with worry and fear. I spoke with them on daily basis regardless of how arduous calls and web entry had been.”
From Egypt to Rafah
Rotana and Huda came upon that they’d be allowed to return to Gaza the day earlier than the crossing partially opened on Monday.
They had been contacted by the Palestinian embassy in Cairo, which gave them the information that they had been among the many names on the primary checklist of these crossing.
The reopening of the crossing is a part of the second part of the Gaza ceasefire deal, which the USA mentioned had begun in mid-January, regardless of the continuation of Israeli assaults on Gaza.
Rafah is the one border crossing from Gaza that doesn’t cross Israeli territory. But it surely has been largely closed since Israeli forces took management of it in Might 2024.
A number of returnee testimonies point out that the crossing is functioning solely partially, permitting very small numbers of individuals to apply it to either side.
Experiences from the opening days present that some travellers had been despatched again on the Palestinian facet of the crossing, regardless of having already cleared Egyptian procedures, usually for unspecified “safety screening” causes, or over the dimensions of their baggage, and not using a detailed official clarification from Israeli authorities.
Based on Egyptian officers, roughly 50 individuals reached the Palestinian facet of the crossing on Tuesday, however Israeli authorities forcibly returned 38 of them, allowing solely 12 to enter Gaza after in depth searches, detentions, and interrogations.
Rotana describes roughly 50 travellers being current on the Egyptian facet of the crossing on Monday.
After finishing procedures there, the group waited for hours for the Palestinian facet of the gates, below the management of Israel, to open, a delay that lasted till night hours.
However even then, not everybody was allowed to cross.
“At first, they let 9 individuals via and instructed [others] to attend. Somewhat later, they let [some of us] cross, however the remaining had been despatched again,” she mentioned, including that she believed Israel was behind the choice.
Egyptian media – citing Egyptian officers – additionally reported that roughly 50 individuals reached the Palestinian facet of the crossing on Tuesday, however that Israeli authorities forcibly returned 38 of them, allowing solely 12 to enter Gaza after in depth searches, detentions, and interrogations.
Since its partial reopening on Monday, the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza has allowed solely very restricted motion.
Within the first days of operation, simply greater than 120 individuals have crossed in line with the Gaza Ministry of Inside – nearly all of them returning to Gaza – whereas dozens extra, together with sufferers in want of pressing medical care, had been prevented from crossing.
Palestinian well being authorities report that tens of 1000’s stay on ready lists, together with greater than 18,500 sufferers requiring specialised therapy unavailable inside Gaza, on account of Israel’s devastation of the enclave.
Israel has framed the restrictions as being crucial for safety causes.
Physique searches and interrogation
Lastly, by Monday night, Rotana and Huda had been capable of cross to the Palestinian facet, the place the European Union Border Help Mission for the Rafah Crossing Level (EUBAM Rafah) are working.
Rotana thought that their ordeal was lastly over – and that she would lastly be capable to reunite along with her youngsters and husband. As a substitute, she met a brand new part of hardship.
“They put us right into a car flanked by Israeli military vehicles, one in entrance and one behind after which stopped us in an open space,” she mentioned.
There, Rotana and the others had been subjected to full-body searches carried out by a lady accompanied by two males who recognized themselves as a part of “counterterrorism forces” – an obvious reference to Palestinian militias working with the Israeli army in Gaza.
“Considered one of them instructed us they had been combating terrorism and lived in a ‘humanitarian metropolis’, welcoming anybody who needed to affix them,” she added.
“I didn’t have interaction along with his remarks, after which they started scolding us as a result of we needed to return to Gaza.”
Following this, Rotana was taken for interrogation by an Israeli army officer, which she mentioned lasted for 3 hours. “It was interrogation, strain, and degrading language,” she recounted.
Rotana mentioned she and the others had been insulted by the officer, who tried to impress them, and referred to as them “humiliated”.
She remembered being requested, “Why did you come again to Gaza? Do you wish to reside in a tent with out water or electrical energy? Or on a roof that doesn’t exist?”
“I attempted to carry myself collectively and never let his phrases have an effect on me,” she mentioned.
Huda described having her fingers certain and eyes coated earlier than she, too, was interrogated.
“[An Israeli soldier] even instructed me to inform my household to organize instantly for pressured relocation from Gaza,” she mentioned, referencing the risk by the Israeli right-wing to drive Palestinians to go away Gaza in what could be ethnic cleaning.
Throughout her personal two hours of detention, Huda was separated from her daughter and mentioned the expertise was scary.
“I used to be terrified. The place round me was darkish and empty like a desert, and I didn’t know the place that they had taken Rotana and the opposite girls, till they launched me and I noticed them once more within the bus,” she mentioned.
Return
In a press statement, the Worldwide Fee to Assist Palestinian Folks’s Rights (ICSPR) strongly condemned the strict Israeli restrictions on the operation of the crossing, saying that that they had turned “journey and return [to Gaza] right into a symbolic process that falls in need of a real and complete opening”.
The ICSPR added that Israeli restrictions – together with requiring pre-approved safety clearances, imposing strict passenger quotas, and implementing advanced procedures for journey – had turned the Rafah crossing “right into a software of management and domination moderately than a humanitarian passage”.
The organisation additionally condemned the therapy of Palestinians on the crossing, together with beatings, humiliating physique searches, extended handcuffing, confiscation of private belongings, and threats of arrest.
When Rotana and Huda had been lastly allowed to proceed their journey, they discovered that Israeli forces had confiscated practically all of what that they had packed for the kids.
“I introduced toys and headphones for my daughters … issues to make them glad,” Rotana mentioned.
“They took the whole lot. Even meals was forbidden,” she defined. “I had promised my youngsters sweets, one thing to have fun with after months of hardship, however they took all of it.”
Regardless of all of it, reuniting with Rotana’s youngsters – Huda’s grandchildren – was on the forefront of their minds.
“I returned with my daughter even earlier than I accomplished my therapy as a result of her youngsters couldn’t bear to be aside from her any longer,” Huda instructed Al Jazeera.
“In the long run, we’re returning to our nation it doesn’t matter what, so why had been we handled this manner?”
After a protracted and exhausting day, Rotana and her mum arrived in Gaza late at evening on Monday, on the Nasser Medical Complicated in Khan Younis.
“The journey was lethal … however thank God, we lastly arrived and reunited with our family members,” Rotana mentioned calmly.
“What occurred to us was an try and discourage us from returning to our land. However the place would we go? That is our dwelling, it doesn’t matter what.”
