Palestinian families seek refuge on Gaza’s beach from the squalor of Rafah’s tent cities. At least 1.3 million displaced people from other areas of the Strip have taken refuge in the southernmost city of the Strip – Ansa
«Prisoners of Israel and hostages of Hamas», says the man who paid 15 thousand dollars to give his wife and young daughter a hope of life: leaving Gaza behind. He didn’t have any money, so he got into debt with relatives who emigrated abroad. They were paid by the emissaries of “Hala”, the controversial travel agency with good contacts in Cairo and in business relations with Hamas. The price list is variable. Palestinians without travel documents, the majority of refugees in the Strip, have little to negotiate: $2,500 for children under 16; $5,000 for others. An adult who wants to skip the queue must put 10 thousand dollars on the table. More affordable is the exit ticket if you have an Egyptian passport: between 650 and 1,200 dollars.
Like Lara, the 18-year-old Christian girl from Gaza City who died yesterday after paying for “safe passage” to Egypt, but succumbed to fatigue and the heat. The offers are openly advertised online by some travel agencies. Journalists who contacted the listed numbers were provided with quotes. An Egyptian agency said it charged Palestinians $7,000, Egyptians $1,200 and other foreign passport holders $3,000.
Journalists from “Occrp”, the investigation platform into corruption and organized crime, were among the first to obtain explanations directly from travel agents. Egypt has denied incidents of corruption or extortion. In a statement published on January 10, the head of Egypt’s State Information Service, Diaa Rashwan, rejected “unfounded accusations” that additional taxes were imposed on Palestinians at the crossing. But several sources contacted by Futureincluding refugees from Gaza who managed to reach Italy, say the opposite.
Abu M., a Palestinian travel agent who works with the “Hala” travel agency, explains that fares “have changed during the war.” It is the law of supply and demand, which in Gaza must deal with at least four variables: the money that is in short supply, the exit quotas established by the Cairo regime, the mood of the customs officers and the progress of the conflict. The tender heart has nothing to do with it. «The price dropped because at the beginning of the war – explains Abu M. – the people who paid to leave the Strip were traders and businessmen, while today there are few of them left. Demand has also decreased due to high prices, so fares have been lowered to maximize the number of travelers and therefore profits.” Money and convenience count. Hala must pay a percentage of the turnover to the emissaries of the Gaza authorities, i.e. directly to Hamas. Among the thousands of people who managed to cross the border there were also relatives of high-ranking members of the armed organization. Among these are also five grandchildren of the Hamas military leader, the unpredictable Yahya Sinwar, two sons of the Gaza police spokesman, Ayman Albatanji, and the wife and children of Sameh Al-Siraj, a member of the Hamas politburo.
Many inhabitants of the Strip who do not have the financial resources of Hamas members have resorted to online fundraising campaigns, to raise the necessary money. For large families it means spending much more to escape than investing in the purchase of a home.
The lord of the border is not a name unknown to international news. The “Hala” travel agency is one of the branches of the “Abnaa Sina” (Sons of Sinai) company. On paper it is a construction and contracting company, owned by the businessman Ibrahim al-Organi, who thanks to the “Organi Group” is one of the most powerful men in Sinai, where he controls his own militia. After a period in prison, Organi built his business empire based on smuggling. Today he is considered one of the closest allies of Egyptian President al-Sisi.
According to Alberto Fernandez, a former American diplomat and former head of US anti-terrorism strategic communications, Ibrahim al-Organi is already looking ahead: his construction companies are involved in the construction of a walled perimeter outside Rafah, on the Egyptian side of the border with the Gaza Strip. Gaza, in which 100 thousand refugees could be hosted. Fernandez is vice president of the Middle East Media Research Institute (Memri), which months before the Hamas attack had predicted October 7, but was not listened to. An Egyptian official involved in negotiations with Hamas yesterday expressed his fears to the Reuters agency: «Egypt, concerned about the potential influx of Palestinian refugees from nearby Gaza if the war were to continue with the Israeli offensive in the southern city of Rafah.”
