Over the long years of the siege imposed on the Gaza Strip the same expressions of pain have been seen on the faces of travelers at the Rafah crossing accompanied by appeals which pass without a final solution to make travel easier for Gazans who have been suffocated by all parties.
Citizens returning to Gaza disembark from buses without believing that they have finally reached safety and comfort as they say.
“We have gone through hell” were the words uttered by all travellers who entered the Palestinian arrival hall as tears begin to fall down their cheeks to ease some pain buried inside their bodies which were exhausted by fatigue during their return trip to the Gaza Strip.
Elderly Mahmud al-Mughayer was gazing at the faces of officers at the Palestinian side of the crossing to make sure that he has finally arrived to the comfort zone at the end of his long journey.
In his 70s he told the PIC reporter “On the way back we went through several checkpoints escorted by the Egyptian army and at every checkpoint the process of searching passengers and getting them off cars took place pushing me to the point where I felt I was no longer able to stand on my feet.”
“I never felt as insulted and disrespected as when I was on the way back to Gaza” he says. “I found myself regretting my entry into the land of Kanana Egypt as they call it.”
On the Egyptian side of the border hundreds of passengers were sleeping inside the Egyptian departure hall waiting to leave on the second day. Women children and elders once again experienced the suffering.
Outside the Egyptian gate a lot of pain and humiliation about 1000 people were stuck in the open air or at a nearby mosque with their bags and belongings next to them waiting for the second day to cross into the Palestinian Territories.
Mistreatment
Umm Yasir also remained stuck at the Egyptian departure hall like the rest of passengers describing her return journey as a piece of hell.
“I left Gaza a few months ago to Egypt to complete my citizenship papers. I left my young children behind and I was cut off from them for two months waiting for the opening of the crossing” she told the PIC.
“My brother passed away in the Gaza Strip as a result of a sudden heart attack. Because of the closure of the crossing I could not bid him one last farewell” she added with tears filling her eyes.
Another Palestinian traveller named Um Hani said when she was asked to describe her journey as she looked tired “The journey was full of fatigue. They made it extremely difficult for us. Along the way we felt so tired. My blood pressure went up and I had to take pills to lower it down.”
She was on her way back with her husband after they visited one of her relatives in Egypt with the road from Cairo to Gaza taking two days to cross stressing that they were treated badly at the hands of soldiers and officers at checkpoints throughout the trip.
Jamal Zorub one of the travellers who returned to Gaza sent a message to the Palestinian leadership in Ramallah and Gaza and urged them to find a solution with the Egyptian authorities regarding the humiliation against passengers leaving and returning back to the Gaza Strip calling on the Egyptian authorities to respect Palestinians and to stop treating them like animals.
The residents of the Gaza Strip hope that the Rafah crossing will remain open in both directions so that they could travel to the outside world and they could break an Israeli siege that has been imposed on them for the last 10 years.
