After five months spent locked up in a government hospital in Egypt and forbidden to leave, Mona and Nadia (first names have been changed) finally regained their freedom on Thursday.
The price to pay: giving up the medical treatments theoretically provided free of charge to Nadia, 11 years old, victim during an Israeli bombing of multiple fractures and a major injury to her leg, which left her hollow. “During all this time, she has only been operated on once while she still needs several operations,” says Fatima, 47, annoyed.
Unsanitary living conditions
Faced with the lack of progress in treatment and tired of the unsanitary living conditions in the public establishment, she finally signed a release for her daughter, thanks to the essential assistance of an Egyptian who acted as guarantor for the two women. , found through a relative. A testimony consistent with several others collected by “Les Echos”, the patients’ identity documents being also often confiscated as a means of pressure by the Egyptian authorities, determined to limit the influx of Palestinian refugees.
However, medical care and the severity of movement restrictions vary depending on the case. A cancer patient claims to have only received painkillers since March, her treatment not being available in Egypt. On the other hand, she was authorized to go out for a few hours a day with her 5-year-old daughter, whose state of mental health was deteriorating, on the condition of returning in the evening.
Some 5,500 wounded and sick Palestinians benefited from free medical evacuation from Gaza to government hospitals in Egypt, before the Rafah border crossing closed on May 7, after its seizure by the Israeli army.
Dropper evacuations
Contacted, the Egyptian Ministry of Health, responsible for the operation, denies holding these Gazans against their will. “Patients are free to leave at the end of their treatment,” says its spokesperson Hossam Abdel Ghaffar. “If they want to leave early against medical advice, they can sign a waiver, but I don’t know anyone who wants that, probably because they fear having to take responsibility for the rest of their treatment alone.”
By choosing to stay in hospital despite everything, some also hope to obtain a transfer to a third country. Gradually evacuations have taken place since this summer to the United Arab Emirates, Spain, Italy and Belgium. France, for its part, has welcomed 17 children and their companions since the start of the conflict, according to a diplomatic source.
We lived through a real nightmare.
NaDIA
By signing a release for her daughter, Mona is aware of having potentially permanently closed this door. However, she admits with an embarrassed smile that she is afraid of leaving again for an unknown country and, above all, of moving further away from her four other children, left behind in Gaza.
“His body remained in the street for days”
Her 24-year-old eldest daughter, who was to get married on October 7, the first day of the war, now takes care of the younger ones. “I feel torn, I want to go back; I am their only parent,” she explains. Her husband was fatally injured in the bombing that injured Nadia near their apartment in Khan Younes, in the center of the Palestinian enclave. “His body remained in the street for days because anyone who came near it could be shot; it was finally carried away by an excavator with the debris of the surrounding buildings; I was never able to get it back, she remembers, her eyes misty. We lived through a real nightmare. »
The mother and her youngest daughter are now staying with a relative in a small apartment in a new town on the outskirts of Cairo. They have joined the daily lives of most of the approximately 100,000 Gazans who fled the war to Egypt.
Forced clandestinity
Apart from medical evacuations or foreign passport holders taken care of by their embassies and sent directly to their home country, these Gazans made the trip on their own. Cost of exit ticket: $5,000 per person, paid to the private travel company Hala, belonging to the very controversial Egyptian businessman Ibrahim Al Organi, close to Marshal al-Sissi’s regime.
Forced clandestinity is our biggest problem at the moment.
Ghassan Zaanin responsible for an aid program for Palestinian and Sudanese refugees within the Adef network, a local NGO
Although better than under the bombs, living conditions in Egypt remain precarious. Since the expiration of their 45-day visas, these Gazans have not been allowed to renew this document or apply for a residence permit. “This forced clandestinity is our biggest problem at the moment,” said Ghassan Zaanin, head of an aid program for Palestinian and Sudanese refugees within the Adef network, a local NGO.
Some Palestinians are afraid of being harassed by the authorities and are reducing their travel. Receiving money directly or opening an account in most banks is also impossible.
No financial aid
There is also no question of sending children to public schools, while private schools are expensive. “Holding a valid residence permit is also a condition for travel to many third countries, except for the injured and sick,” finally adds Ghassan Zaanin, himself leaving Gaza in March with his parents.
Apart from medical evacuations, Gazans do not benefit from any financial, material or psychological assistance from the Egyptian state or the UN.
The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) has no mandate to operate in the country, despite the long presence of Palestinians since the Nakba in 1948 and the war of 1967. “There are indeed some private initiatives leading solidarity actions, but the waiting lists are long and I have personally never benefited from them,” comments Ghassan Zaanin. Mona, who is fortunate to be in contact with several organizations active abroad, hopes for her part to obtain financial assistance to continue Nadia’s care in the private sector.
