Neighboring Egypt’s borders are mostly closed, too. Only a relatively few Gaza residents have been allowed to enter Egypt through the Rafah crossing, including foreign passport holders, the wounded and their companions, and some who have paid exorbitant sums to flee via Egypt. Not wanting a wave of refugees flooding into his country, especially given the prospect that the Israeli authorities might bar them from returning, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi declared Egypt’s “vehement rejection of the forced displacement of the Palestinians and their transfer to Egyptian lands in Sinai.”
Through intermittent telephone connections, Human Rights Watch researchers have been talking with Gaza residents as they flee from one grim place to another. A 34-year-old man from Gaza City, married with two children, has been telling us of his ordeal. “What the kids witnessed in the last area, they are in shock, they are terrified. They jump at small sounds now. It was so hard for me to get my family from the last place to here. Most of the areas were closed off by the Israeli army.”
His family lacks clothing and medicine. Humanitarian aid, so far, has consisted of two bags of flour. They have been sleeping on the ground in a tent in Rafah with 10 others, using a shared outdoor toilet serving about 70-80 people. “We are living an animal life,” he said.
The question for this man now is survival, and he said the only thing he wants is to take his family and leave Gaza. “Gaza is now a graveyard for all its citizens,” he said: “If given a way or a chance I will take my family and my mother and sisters and I will leave without thinking twice. I don’t want to stay here and turn into an animal and fight with others to get water and food.”