At Egypt-Gaza Border, Confusion and Frustration Reign
- 7 months ago
#englishnews # EgyptGazaborder
News Article :-
Before dawn on Monday, the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem sent an email to Americans trapped in Gaza, suggesting they head for the border with Egypt and offering the prospect of escape.
It was hardly a promise, though. A weekend of diplomatic talks to open the Egyptian-Gazan border has so far yielded little but confusion, even at the embassy. Its email about the border opening did not cite talks with Egypt or Israel — it was based on news reports.
The lack of clarity was clear on the ground. Scores of people on Monday toted suitcases and garbage bags stuffed with what personal belongings they could carry to the only border crossing into Egypt, only to find the gates on the Gaza side closed and themselves stuck waiting on floundering diplomatic efforts.
“Are we never getting out of here???” Lena Beseiso, 57, an American stuck near the crossing, in the city of Rafah, wrote in a text message to a reporter. It was the second time in the past seven days that she and her family had gone to the border in hopes of escaping ahead of a threatened Israeli invasion of Gaza.
The confusion in Rafah was just one strand of the chaos that has engulfed Gaza since Israel imposed a total blockade and launched retaliatory airstrikes in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas that killed more than 1,400 people in Israel.
The airstrikes have killed 2,750 people, the Palestinian Health Ministry said, and more than half a million Gazans have heeded Israeli warnings of an imminent invasion and fled their homes for the enclave’s south.
Israel cut off fuel deliveries last week, and there is no longer enough left to power Gaza’s only electricity plant. That, in turn, has shut down desalination plants, leaving the territory with dwindling water supplies.
Shops have been cleaned out of food and basic supplies. The United Nations said on Monday that Gaza was even running out of body bags.
Fadel Waheed, a software engineer, fled with his family from Gaza City in the north to the southern city of Khan Younis a few days ago. They could not find a place to stay, so he spends the night with two of his children in their parked car, while his two other children, his wife and his father sleep crammed into a 1,000-square-foot apartment with dozens of relatives.
Everyone is hungry. When Mr. Waheed, 33, managed to buy some noodles in a shop, he and has family had to eat them dry — there was no gas to boil water. The driver of a water truck let him take a few gulps from the tank through a spigot, but declined to sell him water. He has not changed his clothes in days.
“Money has no value,” Mr. Waheed said in a telephone interview. “There will be a big struggle over water and food and even medicines in two days.”
He added, “I am starved, humiliated, collapsed, oppressed and paralyzed.”
Mohamed Sharif, 42, who fled Gaza City for a friend’s house in the south, spent five hours looking for fuel to pump water i
News Article :-
Before dawn on Monday, the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem sent an email to Americans trapped in Gaza, suggesting they head for the border with Egypt and offering the prospect of escape.
It was hardly a promise, though. A weekend of diplomatic talks to open the Egyptian-Gazan border has so far yielded little but confusion, even at the embassy. Its email about the border opening did not cite talks with Egypt or Israel — it was based on news reports.
The lack of clarity was clear on the ground. Scores of people on Monday toted suitcases and garbage bags stuffed with what personal belongings they could carry to the only border crossing into Egypt, only to find the gates on the Gaza side closed and themselves stuck waiting on floundering diplomatic efforts.
“Are we never getting out of here???” Lena Beseiso, 57, an American stuck near the crossing, in the city of Rafah, wrote in a text message to a reporter. It was the second time in the past seven days that she and her family had gone to the border in hopes of escaping ahead of a threatened Israeli invasion of Gaza.
The confusion in Rafah was just one strand of the chaos that has engulfed Gaza since Israel imposed a total blockade and launched retaliatory airstrikes in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas that killed more than 1,400 people in Israel.
The airstrikes have killed 2,750 people, the Palestinian Health Ministry said, and more than half a million Gazans have heeded Israeli warnings of an imminent invasion and fled their homes for the enclave’s south.
Israel cut off fuel deliveries last week, and there is no longer enough left to power Gaza’s only electricity plant. That, in turn, has shut down desalination plants, leaving the territory with dwindling water supplies.
Shops have been cleaned out of food and basic supplies. The United Nations said on Monday that Gaza was even running out of body bags.
Fadel Waheed, a software engineer, fled with his family from Gaza City in the north to the southern city of Khan Younis a few days ago. They could not find a place to stay, so he spends the night with two of his children in their parked car, while his two other children, his wife and his father sleep crammed into a 1,000-square-foot apartment with dozens of relatives.
Everyone is hungry. When Mr. Waheed, 33, managed to buy some noodles in a shop, he and has family had to eat them dry — there was no gas to boil water. The driver of a water truck let him take a few gulps from the tank through a spigot, but declined to sell him water. He has not changed his clothes in days.
“Money has no value,” Mr. Waheed said in a telephone interview. “There will be a big struggle over water and food and even medicines in two days.”
He added, “I am starved, humiliated, collapsed, oppressed and paralyzed.”
Mohamed Sharif, 42, who fled Gaza City for a friend’s house in the south, spent five hours looking for fuel to pump water i