The armed conflict that Israel and Palestine have been experiencing since last October 7 has focused this Saturday above all on a specific point, south of the Gaza Strip, at the Rafah border crossing. The humanitarian aid convoy, made up of 20 trucks, filled with food and medicine, passed through there this morning. After unloading, it immediately returned to Egyptian lands, without allowing any foreigners or sick people to leave this place, where some people live. more than two million people, in an area of about 355 square kilometers.
This crossing is currently the only exit from this enclave, the only escape route for Gaza, since the rest of the border points are in Israeli territory and are permanently closed, with no transit allowed through them. In this place it has been agreed that Palestinians with dual nationality and those who are there temporarily, but reside in another country, who are still trapped in this area, will leave the Strip. Rafah is therefore a special place and of utmost importance for the course of this war.
This is the only border crossing that exists between Gaza and Egypt, and due to the Israeli bloc, it is also the only way through which humanitarian aid sent by organizations and governments of the different states can enter. There are five others, Erez, Karni, Kerem Shalom, Nahal O and Sufa, but they are all closed, some for more than a decade. That of Kerem Shalom, for example, is restricted only to the exchange of goods.
Just seven meters long, it is located to the south, and is the only gate that exists in the almost 13 kilometers of fence that separates the Strip from Egypt. It is therefore the only possibility that all people who are in the Strip have to flee to another country. The Erez Pass, in the north, was attacked by Hamas on the day the conflict broke out.
Opened in 1982, since 2005, after Israel’s withdrawal from the Strip after four decades of occupation, Rafah passed into the hands of Egypt and the Palestinian National Authority, under the supervision of a European Union force. After the kidnapping of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in July 2006, the crossing was closed for a long time. Months later, the victory of Hamas in the Strip caused the departure of the EU force and the definitive closure of the border, which was reopened in 2011, after the Egyptian Arab Spring. Since July 2013, with the coup d’état by the military leader Abdel Fattá al Sisi, random closures have been maintained, which can last days or months, everything depends on the political strategies of Egypt or Israel.
The growing agglomeration of people these days in the south of the Strip is increasing the pressure on this crossing, which however has only been open for just a few hours. The Egyptian Foreign Ministry quickly ordered its closure, for fear of attacks. From Cairo they have recognized that the damage caused to this border by air attacks in previous days has forced its normal operation to be interrupted.
It opens seasonally, and normally each of its openings is notable. In recent years it has been opened mainly to make way for pilgrims who want to travel to Mecca, and to allow a selected transit of students and also patients who must go to undergo treatment in an Egyptian hospital. Once access was opened, there have been times when it has been closed unexpectedly, taking many travelers inside Gaza by surprise.
But the truth is that in normal situations, without bombings or high tension involved, Palestinians suffer many obstacles in being able to cross the border. In some cases they are required to register almost a month in advance, although this does not guarantee that they can arrive on the requested day.
His step is complicated now and always. Even outside of the periods of great hostilities that have occurred in recent years in this place, very few people, compared to the requests that are made, manage to obtain permission from the Egyptian authorities to cross it. And Egypt does not want the Sinai, the area located between the Suez Canal and the border with Israel and Gaza, to become an extensive permanent Palestinian refugee camp, as has already happened with some parts of Jordan and Lebanon. , which is why the military presence has increased in the area near Rafah.
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