3,500 Palestinians stuck outside Gaza
The author interviews several Gazans stuck in Egypt and other countries, herself included, who are unable to return to the Gaza Strip following the terrorist attack in Sinai and the subsequent closure of the Rafah crossing.
CAIRO — I had planned to travel with my son for two weeks, and got permission to take him out of school. I thought that this trip would make us forget about the last war on Gaza. But we are now facing an even harder reality.
Since Nov. 5, we have been stuck in a Cairo hotel room. We found ourselves unable to board the plane in Paris, as airlines flying to Egypt were instructed not to allow Gazans aboard. When we landed in Istanbul to take the flight to Cairo, we were mistreated. We felt like students being punished in school. We were ordered to stand to the side as the other passengers passed through the gate, looking at us curiously.
Now that we are in Cairo, we are trying to save our sorrow and money. I miss my daughter Zeina, who is 2½ years old. “The Old Man and the Sea” tale keeps coming back to me, as I feel like the fish that Santiago caught and brought to the shore as a skeleton. What makes it a bit easier for me is that hundreds of people are suffering just like us.
Abu Abdullah Tafesh stood in front of the Palestinian Embassy in Cairo with hundreds of other people who have found themselves stuck in Egypt following the closure of the Rafah crossing, and shouted, “Do not leave. Wait until we get a clear answer from the embassy regarding the crossing.”
