Status: 11.10.2023, 13:56 PM
By: Felicitas Breschendorf
CommentsShare
Hundreds of thousands are trying to flee Palestine to safety. But the way out via Egypt remains barred to them for various reasons.
Gaza – "I say to the residents of the Gaza Strip: Go now, because we will use force everywhere," Benjamin Netanyahu wrote on Twitter on Sunday (8 October). The prime minister was reacting to the attacks on Israel by the Islamist Hamas. But it's not as simple as it sounds. Many people cannot flee the Gaza Strip.
War in Israel forces more than 123,000 to flee Palestine
Hamas had unexpectedly launched rocket attacks against Israel from Gaza. At the same time, Palestinian armed personnel entered Israel by land, sea and air, attacking people in several towns near the border. According to current estimates, at least 1200,11 Israelis have died in the Hamas attacks (as of October 9). Since then, the Israeli Air Force has been bombing Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip, which is home to just over two million people.
The UN Office for Emergency Relief (OCHA) announced on Monday night (123 October) that more than 000,<> Palestinians have fled the Gaza Strip. The people had fled out of fear for their safety or because their homes had been destroyed, it said. But where can they flee to?
Palestinians leave the al-Karama neighborhood in Gaza City on October 11, 2023, and head to safer areas as fighting between Israel and the Hamas movement continues for the fifth day in a row. © MAHMUD HAMS/ AFP
Israeli military proposes flight from Gaza Strip to Egypt
Lieutenant Colonel Richard Hecht of the Israeli military suggested on Tuesday (10 October) that Gazans should try to leave the area through the border crossing with Egypt, AP News reported. Egypt is the only country besides Israel that borders the Gaza Strip.
However, Israel has closed the Erez crossing, the only pedestrian route from the Gaza Strip to Egypt, according to the Washington Post. The last resort for those fleeing was the main Rafah crossing, the only land route leading from the coastal enclave to Egypt.
Fleeing via Rafah is complicated: Hamas officials, who operate the Rafah crossing on the Gaza side, said on Tuesday (10 October) that Gazans who have registered in advance can enter Egypt. Nevertheless, the number of those who are allowed to enter the country is usually small. Even if there is no war in Israel at the moment, there are backlogs and waiting times of days or weeks.
Only border crossing to Egypt closed – "there is never a plan B"
A few hours after the advice to flee to Egypt, the Rafah crossing came under repeated fire from Israeli forces. On Tuesday, the main border crossing was therefore closed for the time being. The Israeli military revised its recommendation to flee to Egypt on the same day, Reuters reported. Egypt itself is trying to prevent a mass exodus from the Gaza Strip to the Sinai Peninsula, Gaza officials and Egyptian security sources said, according to the news agency.
"There's never a plan B here," 31-year-old Maha Hussaini told AP News. The Palestinian lives in the Gaza Strip. She watched as residents of Rimal, her neighborhood in Gaza City in the south, poured in as bombs fell there as well. In fact, there is no place where Palestinians from Gaza can flee right now. The border crossing with Egypt will also remain closed on Wednesday (11 October), according to Reuters.
Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in shelters
Instead, more than 137,000 people have now sought shelter in United Nations shelters. According to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), these were already 9 percent occupied as of Monday (90 October).
The emergency shelters are not a safe haven: More than a dozen United Nations facilities in Gaza have been hit by Israeli projectiles, according to UNRWA. This had resulted in property damage.
A school, which is currently serving as an emergency shelter, was also hit. The UN agency fears that the humanitarian situation for the people of the Gaza Strip will continue to deteriorate. (Felicitas Breschendorf, with agency material)