Palestinians in Egypt divided on return to ‘futureless’ Gaza

As Israel begins to allow a trickle of Palestinians through the Rafah border crossing, Gazans stranded in Egypt are torn between staying in exile without formal status or returning to a land in ruins.

“Return to Gaza for what? To live in a tent?” demanded Mohamed, a 78-year-old poet from Beit Lahia in northern Gaza.

“We have not turned our backs on Gaza, we will return. But right now, we cannot go back under these conditions,” he told reporters, asking to be identified only by his first name.

Some 80 percent of Gaza’s buildings have been destroyed or damaged, according to the United Nations.

Aid access remains drastically insufficient, and there are not yet detailed reconstruction plans.

Mohamed is among an estimated 80-100,000 Palestinians who came to Egypt through the Rafah crossing, before it was seized and shut by Israeli forces in May 2024.

Returns are tightly controlled, and by Wednesday only a few dozen Palestinians had been allowed back, describing to reporters a humiliating journey through Israeli check points.

Two years after their son, who lives in France, drained his savings to get them out, Mohamed’s wife Sawsan, 72, said she could not imagine returning.

“The situation that pushed us out hasn’t changed, we lost our homes, our children, our livelihood,” she told reporters, heartbroken over her family still in Gaza: a daughter, a son-in-law and three grandchildren aged three, seven and nine.

Across town, Nadra, 37, is focused only on her son, Hakim.

She brought him to Egypt in January 2024, seeking medical treatment after he suffered burns in an Israeli strike early in the war, at eight years old.

“There is no future in Gaza now. No clean water, no safety, no school for Hakim, nowhere for us to stay,” she said.

Two years on, she lives off monthly transfers from her sister abroad that barely cover rent for her studio apartment.

Skyrocketing rent prices and a state of limbo are among the many struggles of Gazans in Egypt, which has repeatedly warned against any mass displacement of Palestinians into its territory.

Egypt offers a measure of safety, but Gazans who arrived in recent years lack legal status, cannot work formally and are often denied access to public hospitals, schools and banking.

On the eastern outskirts of Cairo, Mahmoud Abdelrahman Rabie counts the days until he can return to Gaza.

He knows he may not be able to even find the remains of his former home and chicken farm in Jabaliya, much of which has been bombed to the ground.

“I know what life is like in a tent, I lived like that for a year. But I still want to return to Gaza,” the 65-year-old told reporters from his cramped studio, a kuffiyeh draped over his shoulders.

Rabie tried to make a living as a driver, but couldn’t get a license without a residence permit, and has since survived on help from friends and relatives.

“Here I am alive only in name. My heart and soul are in Gaza,” he said.

But he has little hope, with only a handful of Palestinians allowed through the crossing.

At the current rate, “my turn will come in two years,” Rabie said. “I don’t even know how I’m paying next month’s rent.”

A year after he was medically evacuated by the UN, Rabie longs for his family, which includes 52 grandchildren scattered around Gaza.

“I cry myself to sleep every night... I just want to go back to my land.”

Yaela El Beltagy, a 36-year-old former restaurant owner, has registered himself, his wife, son and four siblings to return to Gaza.

“I want to go back, see my father and mother, even if there is nothing there but tents,” he told reporters by phone.

“We’re a people deeply connected to our land, we cannot stay away from it,” he said.

Palestinians have repeatedly warned of mass displacement from Gaza, and that those leaving will not be allowed to return.

“I would pick a tent in Gaza over a palace anywhere in the world,” Beltagy said.

Agence France-Presse