2023-11-01 19:40:00
(CNN) — A small number of Palestinians and foreigners have finally been able to leave Gaza, after weeks of intense negotiations that led to the partial opening of the Rafah crossing with Egypt.
The border in the south of the besieged enclave has been seen as the last hope for Gazans escape while Israeli bombs fall on the enclave.
On Wednesday, some left Gaza through Rafah following a deal brokered by Qatar between Israel, Hamas and Egypt, in coordination with the United States.
This comes shortly after aid trucks were able to begin entering the enclave in greater numbers from the opposite direction, something that also required lengthy conversations.
Rafah is the only Gaza border crossing not controlled by Israel, which closed its crossings with the territory following the Hamas attack on October 7. It has become a crucial location as the humanitarian situation in the territory worsens.
This is what you should know about it.
What is the current situation in Rafah?
During the first weeks of the war between Israel and Hamas, the Rafah crossing remained closed, leaving Palestinians with no way out of the enclave.
But it was recently partially opened to allow a small number of aid trucks into Gaza. And then, on Wednesday, it opened again to allow the departure of a limited number of hundreds of wounded Palestinians and foreigners – the first non-hostages freed from Gaza since the Hamas attacks on Israel on October 7.
The injured Palestinians were rushed to hospitals in Egypt, while ambulances and consulate workers waited on the Egyptian side to process those admitted to the country.
Security guards check an Egyptian ambulance carrying seriously injured Palestinians as they arrive at Al-Arish hospital through the Rafah border crossing, November 1, 2023. REUTERS/Stringer
In an initial update on Wednesday afternoon, officials on the Palestinian side said 110 foreign passport holders left Gaza. It is unknown whether all foreign passport holders had crossed into Egypt.
Meanwhile, aid workers have said the supplies that have arrived in Gaza are a fraction of what is needed for the 2.2 million people crammed into the enclave under a blockade imposed by Israel and Egypt. The most important thing is that no fuel trucks have entered the intersection for weeks; Israel has repeatedly said Hamas would divert fuel for its own war effort.
The World Food Program (WFP) has described the situation in Gaza as “catastrophic” due to the lack of food, water, electricity and fuel, and has called for more aid to be allowed into the territory.
Why is the Rafah crossing so important right now?
Located in Egypt’s northern Sinai, the Rafah crossing is the only border crossing between Gaza and Egypt. It falls along a 12.8-kilometer (8-mile) fence that separates Gaza from the Sinai Desert.
Power in Gaza has changed several times over the past 70 years. It fell under Egyptian control in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War and was captured by Israel in the 1967 war, after which Israel began settling Jews there and significantly restricted the movement of its Palestinian residents. In 2005, Israel withdrew its troops and settlers from the territory, and two years later, Hamas seized the territory.
Egypt and Israel have since imposed strict controls on their respective borders with the territory and Israel further blocks it by restricting travel by sea or air. Israel has also surrounded the territory with a heavily fortified border fence.
Before the war that began this month, Israel had two crossings with Gaza: Erez, which is for the movement of people, and Kerem Shalom, for goods. Both were heavily restricted and have remained closed since the war began.
This has left the Rafah crossing with Egypt as Gaza’s only entry point to the outside world.
In accordance with figures from the United Nations (UN), an average of 27,000 people crossed the border each month until July of this year. The border was open for 138 days and closed for 74 this year until that month.
Closures often depend on the political and security situation on the ground. While Israel has no direct control over the crossing, Egypt’s closures often coincide with Israel’s tightening of restrictions on Gaza.
How has access to the Rafah crossing changed over time?
Israel and Egypt signed a peace treaty in 1982, under which the Jewish state withdrew from the Sinai Peninsula that it had captured from Egypt in 1967.
Israel then opened the Rafah crossing, which it controlled until it withdrew from Gaza in 2005. Between then and Hamas’ takeover of Gaza in 2007, the crossing was controlled by the European Union, which worked closely with Egyptian officials.
Between 2005 and 2007, about 450,000 people used the crossing, averaging about 1,500 people per day.
Following Hamas’ takeover, Egypt and Israel significantly tightened restrictions on the movement of goods and people in and out of the territory. But in 2008, fighters blew up fortifications on the border with Egypt near Rafah, causing at least 50,000 Gazans to flood into Egypt to buy food, fuel and other supplies.
Shortly after that, Egypt sealed off its barrier with barbed wire and metal barricades.
Since then, the Rafah crossing has been tightly controlled, with limited access and lengthy bureaucratic and security processes required for Palestinians wishing to cross into Egypt.
What is it normally like to cross the Rafah border?
Movement through Rafah on normal days is extremely limited; only Gazans with permits, as well as foreign citizens, can use it to travel between Gaza and Egypt.
Gazans who wish to cross the border often have to wait for long hours. Jason Shawa, a Palestinian American from Seattle who lives in Gaza, says the process has taken him a minimum of 30 days, but wait times could last up to three months.
Travelers need an exit permit from Hamas and an entry permit from Egypt, he said. The process requires you to present your documents to a Hamas government office to obtain permission to leave the territory. A few days later you would receive a text telling you what day you can check out, which could be up to three months later.
On departure day, a bus takes travelers from the Palestinian side of the border to the Egyptian side, where they wait hours for visa applications to be received and processed by Egyptian authorities. Many travelers are turned away there, Shawa said, adding that Palestinians are regularly mistreated there.
Why does Egypt refuse to open the crossing to Gazans?
Egypt, which already hosts millions of migrants, is concerned about the prospect of hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees crossing into its territory. More than 2 million Palestinians live in Gaza.
Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi said last week that his country is trying to help, within limits.
“Of course we sympathize. But be careful, although we sympathize, we must always use our minds to achieve peace and security in a way that does not cost us much,” she said.
Many are also furious at the idea of turning Gaza’s population into refugees once again by displacing them from Gaza. Most Gazans are registered by the UN as refugees, whose ancestors came from areas that are now part of Israel.
“I think it’s a plan by the usual suspects to try to create de facto problems on the ground. There are no refugees in Jordan. There are no refugees in Egypt,” King Abdullah of Jordan said on Tuesday.
Egypt has called on Israel to allow humanitarian aid through Rafah, but has not yet bowed to calls from the United States to establish a safe corridor for civilians within Egyptian territory.
This article was originally published on October 17 and has been updated
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