Rula Kullab is due to give birth in July, without her husband and outside her homeland. The stretching of her stomach serves as a reminder of the nearly nine long months of war.
The mother of two moved her growing family in Gaza for a fourth and final time, escaping the falling bombs and spectre of hunger and thirst by crossing the border into Egypt, their only possible way out. It’s a move many Palestinians have contemplated, but not so many have been able to make.
“This decision was so difficult for us because we have now separated from my husband without knowing the consequences of this decision,” Kullab, 34, said from the small studio flat in Cairo where she now lives with her daughter, Nay, six, and son Akram, four. “The decision to leave was looming over us, controlling us. It was so painful to leave that in that moment, when we were separated, my daughter cried as she said goodbye to her father, her favourite person.”
There are about 100,000 Gazans in Egypt who have left the Strip since the start of the war in October. There are only three ways to make the crossing. The first is for those lucky enough to have a foreign passport or connections with foreign institutions or governments, or those with approved medical treatment in Egypt. The second is to apply through the Egyptian foreign ministry via a first-degree relative, although this can take months. The third way to exit the territory, and the only way possible for the average Gazan, has been to pay for it.
Out of options, Kullab’s husband “decided to provide us with life and safety by travelling to Egypt”, she said. “In co-ordination with the foreign ministry, for me and my children only, because we couldn’t afford to bring him too — we paid $17,000 [£13,500] — all we had, to get us out.”
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The Times interviewed Gazans who have found refuge in Egypt despite the barriers to secure free passage there. Many said they used the Hala Consulting and Tourism company, a travel agency service that shuttled people between Rafah in Gaza and Sinai, when it was possible to do so. The private company is alleged to have strong links to the Egyptian state, holding an effective monopoly through the Rafah crossing, which has been closed for the past six weeks since Israeli troops surrounded the southern Gazan city.
Kullab’s family left their home in Khan Yunis after it was shelled in the first days of war in October, before Israeli troops had even entered the territory. They found temporary shelter at her brother’s house before returning to their partially destroyed home in December. The very night they did so, tanks entered the city and leaflets rained down, calling on them to evacuate.
They moved to a tent “at an exorbitant price” in the city of the displaced, Rafah — right on the Egyptian border, with the promise of safety just across the way. But when Israel invaded Rafah in early May, the Kullabs moved back north, to Nuseirat, in the centre of the densely populated Strip, until the war once more followed them there.
“With all the moving, my condition was worsening and my weight dropped despite my pregnancy,” Kullab said. “We made this impossible decision, for our children, to stop them living in fear — fear of more displacement, famine and disease.”
Before Israel’s latest ground operation in southern Gaza, Egypt provided a staging ground for aid to enter the Strip. The country has also centred itself as the main host for negotiations between Israel and Hamas in the efforts to broker a ceasefire and hostage release deal. However, the government in Cairo appears to have drawn the line at treating Palestinians as refugees, despite the cause resonating loudly among the public.
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The Egyptian authorities have warned Israel against forcibly displacing Palestinian civilians across the border as they conduct their war against Hamas, fearful that they will not be allowed back. They also cite security concerns against allowing a mass influx of Gazans.
“Egypt’s decisive stance since the beginning of the aggression … is to completely reject any forced or voluntary displacement of Palestinian brothers from the Gaza Strip, especially to Egyptian territory,” Diaa Rashwan, a spokesman for President Sisi’s government, said when on a visit to Germany, adding that it would mean the “liquidation of the Palestinian cause and a direct threat to Egyptian sovereignty and national security”.
The majority of Gazans who have fled now live in Cairo and do not have residency permits. That means they cannot open bank accounts, travel on visas, drive a car or register property. With no central relief effort, displaced persons rely on charities to provide food, rent and clothing, regularly checking social media and WhatsApp groups for updates on what is available.
“Here in Egypt we face many difficulties, to pay for rent, food, health and education — and to be pregnant, the expenses of childbirth here are astronomical — $500 per month,” Kullab said, adding that all of the family’s savings went to getting them out of Gaza.
“I will always try to register with any link or website related to donations and aid for Palestinians in Egypt so I can cover part of the rent and food and living costs. Life here is so expensive and the prices are very high, especially for rent.” Having lived what Kullab called a good life before the war, it is not easy for her to have to rely on aid and charitable donations.
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Another mother of five, who requested anonymity for fear of repercussions, said rent was particularly high for Palestinians. “Because I am here without my husband, it was very difficult to find a house at a reasonable price, but even then we were shocked by the rise in rental prices in Cairo. The prices were doubled. I do not know why they take advantage of people’s needs and increase the prices in such a frightening way,” the mother said.
The lack of income in a foreign country prompted her to sell homebaked Palestinian bread, advertising via a page on Facebook where she now receives daily requests to bake. “Still, it does not pay so much, but I am trying so that we do not go without an income,” she said.
Both mothers hope their children can enrol in a local school after missing almost an entire year of education, but said there are no free schools for them in Egypt. In Gaza, the UN runs free education institutions and health clinics.
Despite the shadow of war and the mass destruction across Gaza, they both seek to return home, even to the rubble where their houses once stood. But they both know that by leaving Gaza, there is a possibility of never returning.
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Recently released footage shows the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing destroyed, the main hall levelled and surrounding buildings demolished, rendering it unusable, at least for now. It puts the prospect of reuniting war-torn families even further away.
“We all hope that this damned war will end, and that we will return to Gaza and I can reunite with my husband,” Kullab said. “To return to our happy life as before. But now, with the closure of Rafah crossing, there is little hope we will meet with him soon.”
