On May 6, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) captured the Palestinian side of the Rafah border crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt, drawing condemnations from the Iran-backed Hamas terrorist group and Egypt.
The IDF said it had "intelligence that terrorists were using the border crossing for terror purposes." A day earlier, Hamas terrorists fired rockets from near the Rafah terminal toward the Kerem Shalom area (near the Israel-Gaza border), killing four Israeli soldiers and wounding several others.
In response to the Israeli military operation, Hamas and Egypt were quick to issue statements denouncing the capture of the Rafah border crossing, claiming that the move would "threaten" the lives of the Palestinians and hinder the entry of humanitarian and relief aid into the Gaza Strip.
"Egypt condemns in the strongest terms the Israeli military operations in the Palestinian city of Rafah, and the resulting Israeli control over the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing," read a statement by the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
"This dangerous escalation threatens the lives of more than a million Palestinians who depend primarily on this crossing as it is the main lifeline of the Gaza Strip, and the safe outlet for the wounded and sick to exit to receive treatment, and for the entry of humanitarian and relief aid to our Palestinian brothers in Gaza."
Hamas and other Palestinian terrorist groups in the Gaza Strip also expressed outrage over the Israeli move and said they would not accept the presence of any non-Palestinian party on the Palestinian side of their terminal.
"We will not accept from any party the imposition of any form of guardianship over the Rafah crossing," the terrorist groups cautioned. They urged the Arab and Islamic states "to reject any plans and attempts that affect Palestinian-Egyptian sovereignty over the Rafah crossing."
The Egyptians and Hamas have good reason to be angry with the presence of the IDF at the Palestinian side of the Rafah border crossing. For several years, Palestinians who wanted to exit the Gaza Strip via the terminal have alleged that they had to bribe Hamas and officials. Hamas and Egypt are now afraid of losing the Palestinian milk-cow.
In 2015, Egyptian journalist Ahmed Moussa revealed that Hamas received bribes worth $6,000 from Palestinians for passing through the Rafah border crossing.
A year later, Palestinian journalist Noha Abu Amr wrote on her Facebook page about the plight of her 50-year-old mother, who was unable to travel through the Rafah crossing, but she did not pay a bribe to Hamas officials. She said that her mother sat on the floor and kissed the hands and legs of the crossing officials in full view of the people and begged them to allow her to travel. "They treated her like animals," Abu Amr recounted. "It is our right to travel without bribes and without corruption. We are living under a [Hamas] dictatorship." Abu Amr was later arrested by Hamas security officers, who confiscated her mobile phone and ordered her to delete the Facebook post.
Arab and Western media outlets have reported that since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in October 2023, Palestinians who want to leave the Gaza Strip through the Rafah terminal are being compelled to bribe Egyptian officials with thousands of dollars. The war erupted after Hamas terrorists invaded Israel and massacred, decapitated, raped and dismembered 1,200 Israelis on October 7. Additionally, more than 240 Israelis were abducted by the terrorists and taken to the Gaza Strip; 132 hostages, many of whom are believed to have been killed, are still being held there by the terrorist group.
"To leave Gaza, people are paying a $5,000 bribe to Egypt," the Gaza-based Palestinian journalist Hind Khoudary wrote on X on November 23, 2023.
Palestinians who try to leave the Gaza Strip through the Rafah border crossing have to pay bribes to brokers of up to $10,000, the British newspaper The Guardian reported on January 8, 2024.
"Very few Palestinians have been able to leave Gaza through the Rafah border crossing but those trying to get their names on the list of people permitted to exit daily say they are being asked to pay large 'coordination fees' by a network of brokers and couriers with alleged links to the Egyptian intelligence services."
It quoted a Palestinian man in the US as saying he paid $9,000 to get his wife and children on the list. On the day of travel, he was told his children's names were not listed and he would have to pay an extra $3,000. He said the brokers were "trying to trade in the blood of Gazans".
"It's very frustrating and saddening," he said. "They are trying to exploit people who are suffering, who are trying to get out of the hell in Gaza."
According to The Guardian:
"A network of brokers, based in Cairo, helping Palestinians leave Gaza has operated around the Rafah border for years. But prices have surged since the start of the war, from $500 for each person."
The Guardian interviewed a number of Palestinians who have been told they would have to pay between $5,000 and $10,000 each to leave the Gaza Strip, with some launching crowdfunding campaigns to raise the money.
A Palestinian living in the UK was quoted as saying:
"People are making money off the misery of others. They're desperate to get out to save their lives and instead of helping they're trying to make money. If there's a way to get people out, then why not just help?"
A company owned by an influential Egyptian businessman and ally of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi is making around $2 million a day from Palestinians fleeing the Gaza Strip, according to the Middle East Eye (MEE), a UK-based news website, on May 1, 2024
"Hala Consulting and Tourism Services, a firm owned by Sinai tribal leader and business tycoon Ibrahim al-Organi, has been charging Palestinians crossing from Gaza's Rafah to Egypt at least $5,000 per adult and $2,500 for children under 16.
"It has a monopoly on providing transfer services at the Rafah crossing, the only Gaza exit not bordered with Israel and the single route out of the coastal enclave for Palestinians."
