Egypt's Gaza gateway: crossroad of frustration
The border crossing is one of five ways in and out of Gaza. But it has been open just 64 days in the past nine months.
from the May 2, 2007 edition
Page 2 of 3
After five hours with his knees pressed against the seat in front of him and unable to get a wink of sleep, he climbs out of the bus at the Rafah crossing. A crowd of men surrounds the vehicle, aggressively offering to help the passengers carry their luggage – for a price. The bus disgorges some two-dozen suitcases, bags stuffed with goods to sell at a profit in Gaza, a pair of crutches and even a hijab-wearing Fullah doll – the Islamic answer to Barbie.
There are already hundreds of people amassed at the giant main gates of the border crossing. It is the first day in a week that the border crossing has been open, and the Palestinians here know this may be their only chance for another week or longer to get home.
Women with stuffed bags are squashed against men fighting each other to rent carts at $35 a piece. Egyptian riot police beat back the crowd at the crossing's gate with long sticks, an uncomfortable image for the country that sees itself as the champion of pan-Arab causes.
Some young men have scaled the 20-foot-high gates. One tries to hoist a giant red suitcase over the gate, handed up from the crush of people below. When the gates part briefly to allow in security forces or ambulances carrying the sick, the crowd tries to shove its way through.
Abu Khalid gathers his bags from the bus and wades into the throng. His earlier excitement to be heading home dissipates as he eyes the huge crowd in front of him. His earlier annoyance at the minibus driver who delayed their departure from Cairo for two hours to pick up late passengers now proves well founded. It's clear those two hours cost him a choice place in line.
He stares beyond the gates. Several hundred more people inside the border crossing complex are waiting to enter a building where they are processed by Egyptian officials. Even if they make it to that point, they can still be turned back if they haven't arrived at the Palestinian side by the time the border closes. When will it close? That varies, say Egyptian officials here and people waiting at the border.
Fatahys Yousef al Roozah stands at the edge of crowd outside the gate. She's going home to Gaza for the first time in a year, to visit her sick sister. She says she spent most of the past six days under a tree near the border area, waiting for an opening. Most people wait in hotels or rent small houses in al Arish, a town an hour away, sometimes borrowing money from other travelers to pay for their extended stay.
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