CAIRO — Elegant and well-dressed, Ashraf Abu Eyada arrived an hour at the meeting point arranged by the Palestinian embassy in Cairo for those who want to return to the war-torn Gaza Strip.
A farmer in his 40s from Wadi Gaza, Abu Eyada was one of dozens who gathered near International Park on the evening of March 26. He was carrying only two bags, as instructed, one of which was a carry cot of newborn supplies for his soon-to-be-born grandson.
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Abu Eyada arrived in Egypt on October 3, four days before the war. And he registered his name at the embassy to return to Gaza five months ago.
“I received a call from the embassy only two days ago, setting the date and place of departure,” he explained, while waiting for the vehicle that would take the group to the Rafah Crossing.
Abu Eyada did not hesitate when he was given the opportunity to return to Gaza.
Mixed feelings
For more than three hours, Al Manassa watched the travelers load their bags and take their seats on the vehicles that would take them to the crossing. They had mixed feelings of joy and concerns: happy that they soon be reunited with their loved ones; anxious that the crossing authorities might complicate their entry due to their bags and the little aid they carried with them.
Abu Eyada did not hide his grief over the war. But he — just like all the other travelers — was determined to return despite the war.
“I am tormented every day. My house in Gaza has been destroyed and bulldozed, as have the houses of my brother and my uncle. My family left the house and are sheltering in a tent in Rafah,” he said.
As he spoke with us, a Palestinian woman begged him to deliver some medicine to her sick sister and nephew in Rafah. She explained that her sister has a psychological disorder, while her the nephew suffers from severe dehydration and needs medication unavailable in Gaza. Embarrassed, Abu Eyada agreed to deliver the medicine, but noted that he had left six bags at his home in Cairo due to the embassy’s limits set by the embassy.
“I even switched off my phone so no one calls and asks me to deliver anything,” he said, “The embassy and the crossing authorities are supposed to allow the returnees to carry as many bags as possible because our families are waiting for us.”
Return to death
Wissam al-Rawi*, a young Palestinian-Egyptian, arrived at the meeting point to send some items to his family in Gaza with a traveling relative.
“People have become accustomed to the situation there. In the end, they are returning to their home country,” he said, stressing the imminent danger for those in Gaza. “I have three friends who traveled at the beginning of the war when Egypt opened the crossing three days into the war. A week later, they were all killed along with their families.”
Al-Rawi, a barber in Cairo, planned to return to Gaza at the beginning of the war, but changed his mind. “I was going to sell everything and travel, but my family in Gaza told me ‘No, are you crazy?”
Standing nearby, Maher Qadas, who is from the hard-hit north of Gaza, was looking for a trip companion. “The dangerous situation in the strip forces us to travel and stay with our families, feel their feelings, and die with them,” he said. Qadas, who is in his 50s, said that sharing his family’s tragedy is his duty, “even if it costs our lives.”
“Everything we have is with our people in Gaza. It’s to die together, or live together.”
His anxiety prompted him to travel back to Gaza to by his family’s side. “We are safe living in Egypt, but we are as dead because our thoughts, our minds. Everything we have is with our people in Gaza. It’s to die together, or live together,” he said.
Mahmoud Salem*, a physician from Gaza who came to bid farewell to relatives returning to the strip, observed that there are two kinds of people who want to return to Gaza. First are men who managed to get out of Gaza but left their families behind. “They decided to return so they could bring their wives and children to Egypt, or stay with them there,” Salem said.
Second are people who are stuck in Egypt and are unable to pay rent and other bills. “So they decide to go back because at least there is no rent. They will live on humanitarian aid and will be with their children,” said Salem, who studied medicine in Ain Shams University in Cairo.
Malak al-Farra, a school child, was happy as she boarded the vehicle to cross into Gaza.
“We miss our family and our father, and we are not afraid of war,” said al-Farra, whose family arrived in Egypt six weeks ago to test her sister, Asma, who needs a liver transplant, but the surgery was postponed. Al-Farra wants the war to end and for life to return to normal in Gaza, so she can return to school (which is partly damaged) in the southern city of Khan Younis.
Soaring prices
Those returning to Gaza are as concerned about the soaring prices and dire shortages of food and other necessities, as they are about the relentless bombing.
“Goods are not available. And the price of the few available foods has not only doubled, but is 10 times higher than the pre-war prices,” said al-Rawi. The Palestinian-Egyptian barber was sending a jar of blackstrap molasses to his sister in Gaza.
“People do not have money,” he said, adding that his family depends on his dead father’s pension, which “is not sufficient; it covers their needs for a week only,” he said.
Abu Eyada, the farmer in his 40s, said that the Palestinian public supports the resistance groups — even those who are not with the war. “The catastrophe is a general one, and touches everyone,” he said.
Qadas, from northern Gaza, believe that the resistance groups are right in defending the Palestinian people and territories, saying, “We are with them until liberation.”
* Names have been changes at the request of the sources
