How displaced Palestinians are adjusting to life in Egypt after escaping beleaguered Gaza

Displaced Palestinian women and gather on a sand dune above a makeshift camp on the Egyptian border, west of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on January 14, 2024. (AFP/File)
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Updated 31 March 2024
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How displaced Palestinians are adjusting to life in Egypt after escaping beleaguered Gaza

  • They describe financial troubles, post-traumatic stress, and survivor’s guilt since reaching safety of Cairo
  • They fear for friends and family still trapped inside the embattled enclave amid violence and looming famine

CAIRO: Palestinian civilians caught in the crossfire between Israeli troops and Hamas militants are finding ways to cross from Gaza into Egypt to escape the prolonged conflict. Once there, however, many grapple with financial hardship, survivor’s guilt and intense trauma.

Despite mounting international pressure, Israel has ignored repeated calls for a ceasefire and pleas to permit more aid by road to enter the enclave. The death toll has now exceeded 32,000, with children making up more than 40 percent of those killed, according to local health officials.

Among those who managed to escape in recent weeks the beleaguered territory long controlled by Hamas for the safety of Egypt is Anas, a 23-year-old Palestinian who now resides in a small two-bedroom house in Cairo with his relatives.




Displaced Palestinians talk to Egyptian soldiers at the border fence between Gaza and Egypt, on February 16, 2024 in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas militant group. (AFP/File)

Speaking to Arab News at a coffee house in Dokki, a residential neighborhood on the west bank of the Nile, Anas, whose name has been changed to protect his identity, recalled his family’s displacement shortly after the war began on Oct. 7.

“We were displaced so many times,” he said. “At one point we were forced to take shelter at a school in the area called Awda.” It was there that Israeli troops began rounding up military-aged men and boys for questioning.

“Not only were they keen on killing us, they wanted to humiliate us as well,” said Anas.

“They were not following any rules. The investigations and their results were based on their whims. I saw men stripped down to their underwear with their eyes blindfolded. A lot of them I recognized as grocers, friends and neighbors. These were not militants, but that did not matter to the Israelis.

“They were taken into tents where the alleged investigation was happening and I could hear their screams resulting from what I can only deduce was torture.”




A Palestinian boy looks for cartons to make a fire in the Rafah refugee camp on March 21, 2024, amid ongoing battles between Israel and the militant group Hamas. (AFP)

Despite his fears about what might happen to him at the hands of his interrogators and amid the death and destruction around them, Anas said he felt duty bound to protect his 13-year-old brother, Mohammad, who had been injured in a bombing raid.

“All I could think of is how to get my brother proper care,” he said. “The house we were staying in at some point got bombed. I lost two friends and a cousin. My father got hit. He still carries the shrapnel. And my little brother’s leg got severely injured.

“I ran with him to the European Hospital in Gaza, but it was so chaotic there — hundreds of injured and a small medical team doing their best in a half-functional hospital.”

INNUMBERS

1.7 million Displaced in Gaza. (UN estimate)

70,000+ Housing units destroyed in Gaza (MoPWH)

32,300+ Reported killed. (MoH Gaza)

74,690+ Reported injured. (MoH Gaza)

The European Hospital in southern Khan Younis was initially intended to treat up to 240 people. However, since the conflict began, it has been overwhelmed by thousands of patients each day, its corridors and grounds packed with displaced Palestinians.

The health system in Gaza has all but collapsed. According to a statement in February from the UN Relief and Works Agency, UNRWA, just 12 hospitals remained partially functional, while some 123 ambulances had been destroyed.




This photo taken on February 29, 2024 shows displaced Palestinian children, including a 10-year-old with a pre-existing condition, at Al-Awda clinic in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. The boy died on March 4, 2024 from severe malnourishment and insufficient healthcare with the lack of needed medication and severe malnutrition as living conditions in the besieged Palestinian territory deteriorate. (AFP)

“We knew we couldn’t treat Mohammad adequately and we knew our father’s condition may turn into an infection, so we made a collective decision to go to Egypt,” said Anas.

The family paid thousands of dollars to an agent to orchestrate their crossing into Egypt via Rafah. Mohammad, meanwhile, was taken to Qatar to receive medical treatment, sponsored by the Qatari government.

“I felt so relieved when I found out his leg did not need amputation,” said Anas. “That’s my baby brother. If I needed to, I would have chopped off my own leg if it meant healing him.”

Although he is now safe and able to sleep soundly in a bed without fear of bombardment and further displacement, Anas said he still has difficulty sleeping.




Some Palestinians fleeing Israeli bombardment in Gaza have managed to enter Egypt but at great risk and expense, according to some refugees. (AFP/File)

“I remember the sounds of the screams coming from the investigation tents. I remember the wailing of families at the hospital. I remember the chaos and I don’t think it will ever leave me,” he said.

“I feel guilty being here knowing so many of my friends are gone or still stuck in hell.”

Anas is not alone among those Palestinians who managed to escape Gaza in having to grapple with what psychologists refer to as survivor’s guilt — a common symptom of post-traumatic stress disorder.

“We knew on Oct. 7 that things were going to go bad, but we did not expect this level of cruelty and savagery,” Omar, a 40-year-old engineer, told Arab News at his new home in Cairo, where he and his surviving daughters are hosted by an Egyptian family.




Dual nationality holders are among the few fleeing violence in from Gaza to be allowed to enter Egypt through the Rafah border crossing. (AFP)

According to Omar, whose name has also been changed to protect his identity, many families in Gaza make the difficult decision to live in separate places to improve the chances of at least some of them surviving a bombardment.

However, Omar and his family chose to stick together. “If death was coming, it will be coming for us all,” he said. “It took the best of me instead.

“My parents, my brothers, their wives and their children, my sons, my daughters, my wife and I were staying together. A rocket fell and by the grace of God I was standing in the corner, which probably saved my life.”

As the dust began to settle, Omar called out to his family. “But it was mainly silence. Through the ringing in my ears it was deafening silence,” he said.

“I lost everyone except my daughters and my sisters. I gathered my sons’ limbs, piece by piece, meat by meat, to reassemble them again. I wanted to give them a proper burial, but I was deprived of that, too.”




Israeli troops stand guard near Egyptian trucks bringing in humanitarian aid supplies to the Gaza Strip, on the Israeli side of the Kerem Shalom border crossing with the Palestinian territory on February 6, 2024, as right-wing Israeli protesters gather to block the trucks from entering. (AFP)

Omar’s sisters begged him to find the means to move what remained of the family out of Gaza. Like Anas and his family, Omar was able to raise enough money to pay an agent to help them reach Egypt.

However, Omar says one of his sisters and her children were left behind after the agent left her name off the list presented to guards at the Rafah border crossing.

“I am physically here but my heart is in Gaza,” said Omar. “I cannot stop thinking about my sister and her children. I can’t eat or sleep properly. And I have no idea when she’ll be evacuated.”

He added: “Not only am I left with a huge debt, but also a survivor’s guilt I don’t think I’ll ever be able to shake off.”




Egyptian paramedics transport an injured Palestinian child to a Red Crescent ambulance upon his arrival from Gaza via the Rafah border crossing, on January 10, 2024 amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the militant group Hamas. (AFP)

And although he is grateful to have been taken in by his Egyptian hosts, Omar says he feels like a “fish out of water” since leaving Gaza.

“While I am grateful to my Egyptian hosts, I feel stranded and confused,” he said. “My land is gone. I have nothing to return to. Entire neighborhoods have been leveled.

“I am haunted by my previous life, the sound of my wife’s laughter, my sons’ gleeful screams as they played. I feel soulless now. But I have to remain stoic for my daughters and my sisters. I am the only man left from the family. Their husbands have been arrested and we don’t know whether they are dead or alive.

“But after so much suffering, grace must come. God’s justice will not have it any other way.”
 

 


Egypt’s foreign minister discusses Iran nuclear negotiations, Gaza with US envoy

Updated 12 June 2025
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Egypt’s foreign minister discusses Iran nuclear negotiations, Gaza with US envoy

  • Badr Abdelatty says US-Iran negotiations are an important opportunity to achieve calm in the region
  • Oman to host sixth round of negotiations between Iran and the US on Sunday

LONDON: Badr Abdelatty, Egypt’s minister of foreign affairs, emphasized the need to persist in negotiations between the US and Iran over Tehran’s nuclear program during a phone call with Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff.

Abdelatty said the negotiations are an important opportunity to achieve calm, avoid escalation, and prevent the region from sliding into greater instability, WAM, the Emirates News Agency, reported.

Oman will host the sixth round of negotiations between Iran and the US on Sunday, Oman’s foreign minister said on Thursday.

Abdelatty and Witkoff, the US president’s special envoy for the Middle East, on Thursday addressed Egyptian and US efforts to reach a ceasefire agreement in the Gaza Strip. They discussed the release of Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners, as well as the flow of humanitarian aid into the Palestinian coastal enclave, according to WAM.

The Egyptian foreign minister highlighted the need for a lasting resolution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict that meets the region’s aspirations for peace and stability.


France’s Macron praises Palestinian president’s ‘genuine willingness’ for peace

Updated 12 June 2025
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France’s Macron praises Palestinian president’s ‘genuine willingness’ for peace

  • Mahmoud Abbas’ commitment to elections and reforms welcomed
  • Comments come ahead of 2-state conference in New York next week

LONDON: France’s President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday praised Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ “concrete and unprecedented commitments” after receiving a letter from the latter ahead of the UN-backed Saudi-French conference on a two-state solution in Palestine.

In his letter on Monday, which was addressed to Macron and Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Abbas outlined the main steps to be taken to end the war on Gaza.

He called for the demilitarization of Hamas, the release of hostages, a ceasefire in Gaza and deployment of international forces to protect “the Palestinian people,” while reaffirming his commitment to reforms and elections.

Abbas also demanded an end to “the occupation and conflict once and for all” and halting settler activities.

In a post on X, Macron described the letter as “a decisive moment, praising the Palestinian leader for charting “a course toward a horizon of peace.”

 

 

“Concrete and unprecedented commitments that demonstrate a genuine willingness to move forward,” said Macron.

France and Saudi Arabia will co-chair the high-level International Conference for the Peaceful Settlement of the Palestinian Question and the Implementation of the Two-State Solution in New York next week.

The conference at the UN’s headquarters aims to achieve concrete steps toward the two-state solution.

In his letter, Abbas stressed the Palestinian Authority’s commitment to presidential and general elections within a year across the Occupied Territories — including East Jerusalem — under international supervision.

“The Palestinian people are entitled to live in freedom and dignity in their homeland. Palestine and Israel are entitled to exist as states, in peace and security, in conformity with international law,” Abbas wrote in his letter.

Reaffirming his commitment to the two-state solution, he said: “We are ready to conclude within a clear and binding timeline, and with international support, supervision and guarantees, a peace agreement that ends the Israeli occupation and resolves all outstanding and final status issues.”


Iraq reports 19 Congo fever deaths already this year

Updated 12 June 2025
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Iraq reports 19 Congo fever deaths already this year

  • Congo fever is a viral disease which is transmitted to people either by tick bites or through contact with infected animal blood or tissues during or immediately after slaughter

Baghdad: Iraq said Thursday it has recorded 19 deaths from Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever already this year and urged farmers and abattoir workers to step up precautions when handling livestock.

A total of 123 cases have been recorded nationwide, health ministry spokesman Saif Al-Badr said in a statement, adding that 36 of them were reported in the poor southern province of Dhi Qar, which is heavily dependent on livestock farming.

Congo fever is a viral disease which is transmitted to people either by tick bites or through contact with infected animal blood or tissues during or immediately after slaughter, according to the World Health Organization.

It has a fatality rate of between 10 and 40 percent, and most cases have been reported in the livestock industry.

A previous surge in infections in Iraq in 2022 saw at least 27 deaths, compared with just six cases for the two decades from 1989 to 2009.

The WHO attributed that flare-up to a rise in the tick population resulting from the failure to carry out pesticide spraying campaigns in 2020 and 2021.


Hamas says it killed 12 Israeli-backed fighters. Israeli-supported group says they were aid workers

Updated 11 min 51 sec ago
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Hamas says it killed 12 Israeli-backed fighters. Israeli-supported group says they were aid workers

  • Last week, Israel acknowledged it is supporting armed groups of Palestinians in what it says is a move to counter Hamas
  • UN and major aid groups have rejected Israeli and US-backed GHF initiative

CAIRO: A unit of Gaza’s Hamas-run police force said it killed 12 members of an Israeli-backed militia after detaining them early Thursday. Hours earlier, an Israel-supported aid group said Hamas attacked a bus carrying its Palestinian workers, killing at least five of them.

The militia, led by Yasser Abu Shabab, said its fighters had attacked Hamas and killed five militants but made no mention of its own casualties. It also accused Hamas of detaining and killing aid workers. It was not immediately possible to verify the competing claims or confirm the identities of those killed.

The Israeli military circulated the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation‘s statement on its social media accounts but declined to provide its own account of what happened.

Aid initiative already marred by controversy and violence

The aid group’s operations in Gaza have already been marred by controversy and violence since they began last month, with scores of people killed in near-daily shootings as crowds headed toward the food distribution sites inside Israeli military zones. Witnesses have blamed the Israeli military, which has acknowledged firing only warning shots near people it said approached its forces in a suspicious manner.

Earlier this week, witnesses also said Abu Shabab militiamen had opened fire on people en route to a GHF aid hub, killing and wounding many.

The United Nations and major aid groups have rejected the Israeli and US-backed initiative, accusing them of militarizing humanitarian aid at a time when experts say Gaza is at risk of famine because of Israel’s blockade and renewed military campaign.

Last week, Israel acknowledged it is supporting armed groups of Palestinians in what it says is a move to counter Hamas. Abu Shabab’s militia, which calls itself the Popular Forces, says it is guarding the food distribution points set up by the Israeli- and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation in southern Gaza. Aid workers say it has a long history of looting UN trucks.

GHF has denied working with the Abu Shabab group.

‘They were aid workers’

In a statement released early Thursday, the foundation said Hamas had attacked a bus carrying more than two dozen “local Palestinians working side-by-side with the US GHF team to deliver critical aid” near the southern city of Khan Younis.

“We condemn this heinous and deliberate attack in the strongest possible terms,” it said. “These were aid workers. Humanitarians. Fathers, brothers, sons, and friends, who were risking their lives everyday to help others.”

It did not identify the men or say whether they were armed at the time.

Rev. Johnnie Moore, a Christian evangelical adviser to US President Donald Trump who was recently appointed head of GHF, called the killings “absolute evil” and lashed out at the UN and Western countries over what he said was their failure to condemn them.

“The principle of impartiality does not mean neutrality. There is good and evil in this world. What we are doing is good and what Hamas did to these Gazans is absolute evil,” he wrote on X.

Israel and the United States say the new system is needed to prevent Hamas from siphoning off aid from the long-standing UN-run system, which is capable of delivering food, fuel and other humanitarian aid to all parts of Gaza. UN officials deny there has been any systematic diversion of aid by Hamas, but say they have struggled to deliver it because of Israeli restrictions and the breakdown of law and order in Gaza.

UN officials say the new system is unable to meet mounting needs, and that it allows Israel to use aid as a weapon by controlling who has access to it and by essentially forcing people to relocate to the aid sites, most of which are in the southernmost city of Rafah, now a mostly uninhabited military zone. Some fear this could be part of an Israeli plan to coerce Palestinians into leaving Gaza.

Hamas says it killed traitors

Hamas has also rejected the new system and threatened to kill any Palestinians who cooperate with the Israeli military. The killings early Wednesday were carried out by the Hamas-run police’s Sahm unit, which Hamas says it established to combat looting.

The unit released video footage showing several dead men lying in the street, saying they were Abu Shabab fighters who had been detained and killed for collaborating with Israel. It was not possible to verify the images or the claims around them.

Mohammed Abu Amin, a Khan Younis resident, said he was at the scene of the killings and that crowds were celebrating them, shouting “God is greatest” and condemning those killed as traitors to the Palestinian cause and agents of Israel.

Ghassan Duhine, who identifies himself as a major in the Palestinian Authority’s security forces and deputy commander of the Abu Shabab group, posted a statement online saying they clashed with Sahm and killed five. He denied that the images shared by Sahm were of Abu Shabab fighters.

The Palestinian Authority, led by rivals of Hamas and based in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, has denied any connection to the Abu Shabab group, but many of the militiamen identify themselves as PA officers.

Mounting lawlessness as Israel steps up military campaign

Israel renewed its offensive in March after ending a ceasefire with Hamas and imposed a complete ban on imports of food, fuel, medicine and other aid before easing the blockade in mid-May.

The ongoing war and mounting desperation have plunged Gaza into chaos, with armed gangs looting aid convoys and selling the stolen food. The Hamas-run police force, which maintained a high degree of public security before the war, has largely gone underground as Israel has repeatedly targeted its forces with airstrikes. The military now controls more than half of the territory.

The war began when Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking 251 hostage. They are still holding 53 captives, less than half of them believed to be alive, after most of the rest were released in ceasefire agreements or other deals.

Israel’s military campaign has killed over 55,000 Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which has said women and children make up more than half of the dead. It does not say how many of those killed were civilians or combatants.

Israel’s offensive has flattened large areas of Gaza and driven around 90 percent of the population of roughly 2 million Palestinians from their homes. The territory is almost completely reliant on humanitarian aid because nearly all of its food production capabilities have been destroyed.

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Palestinian Authority says Internet down in Gaza after attack on fiber optic cable

Updated 12 June 2025
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Palestinian Authority says Internet down in Gaza after attack on fiber optic cable

  • Maintenance and repair teams unable to safely access the sites where damage occurred to the fiber optic cable
  • ‘Israeli occupation continues to prevent technical teams from repairing the cables that were cut yesterday’

RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories: The Palestinian Authority said Internet and fixed-line communication services were down in Gaza on Thursday following an attack on the territory’s last fiber optic cable it blamed on Israel.

“All Internet and fixed-line communication services in the Gaza Strip have been cut following the targeting of the last remaining main fiber optic line in Gaza,” the PA’s telecommunications ministry said in a statement, accusing Israel of attempting to cut Gaza off from the world.

“The southern and central Gaza Strip have now joined Gaza City and the northern part of the Strip in experiencing complete isolation for the second consecutive day,” the ministry said in a statement.

It added that its maintenance and repair teams had been unable to safely access the sites where damage occurred to the fiber optic cable.

“The Israeli occupation continues to prevent technical teams from repairing the cables that were cut yesterday,” it said, adding that Israeli authorities had prevented repairs to other telecommunication lines in Gaza “for weeks and months.”

The Palestinian Red Crescent said the communication lines were “directly targeted by occupation forces.”

It said the Internet outage was hindering its emergency services by impeding communication with first responder teams in the field.

“The emergency operations room is also struggling to coordinate with other organizations to respond to humanitarian cases.”

Maysa Monayer, spokeswoman for the Palestinian communication ministry, said that “mobile calls are still available with very limited capacity” in Gaza for the time being.

Now in its 21st month, the war in Gaza has caused massive damage to infrastructure across the Palestinian territory, including water mains, power lines and roads.