Passing through the Rafah terminal, the only way out of the hell that is Gaza, has become a lucrative business for war profiteers. For several thousand dollars, independent brokers and well-established travel agencies have been offering Gazans a permit to cross into Egypt. As the Israeli army has been tightening its grip on the enclave's south, after more than a hundred days of war that has claimed the lives of over 25,000 Palestinians, more and more people – even those who could be covered by the evacuation mechanism for foreign nationals and wounded Palestinians set up in November 2023 – have begun raising exorbitant sums to leave Gaza.
According to an investigation carried out by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) and the independent Egyptian fact-checking website Saheeh Masr, intermediaries sell this precious permit at prices ranging from $4,500 to $10,000 (€4,100 to €9,200) for Palestinians, and from $650 to $1,200 for Egyptians. Independent brokers, some with dubious credentials, have ventured into this highly profitable business. One of the service providers most often recommended by Gazans is the Egyptian travel agency Hala Consulting and Tourism, founded by Ibrahim El-Argani, a businessman from the Sinai region with links to Egyptian intelligence services.
OCCRP and Saheeh Masr investigators spoke to 15 Palestinians and Egyptians who had turned to these intermediaries. Only two of them had been able to leave the Gaza Strip, paying $4,500 each. Three others had been scammed by brokers and lost their money. Others were trying to raise the required sum by selling their gold or personal items, borrowing from family and friends, or through crowdfunding online. Rasha Ibrahim was one. She was quoted a fee of over $40,000 by an intermediary to get her, her husband and their three children out of the Gaza Strip.
"We can't afford it," said the 31-year-old Egyptian woman, who has taken refuge in a tent in the enclave's center ever since her home near Gaza City was destroyed by Israeli bombings. She had thought that her Egyptian passport would open Rafah's gates – not only for her, but also for her husband and children, who are Palestinian nationals. She still hasn't received word of her request for repatriation, which she had applied for via the online portal opened by the Egyptian authorities in early December 2023.
"Only the ones who have money can pay and leave," lamented an Egyptian man, who requested anonymity. The Mushtaha for Travel and Tourism agency in southern Gaza had demanded $6,500 to assist him, his wife and their eight children – all Egyptians nationals. Palestinians whose relatives have been seriously injured, but not yet evacuated, have also been turning to intermediaries. "The brokers we talked to asked for $9,500 to take out my wife, and $7,000 each for my two nieces, Farah and Riham, who sustained serious injuries during the war and are bound to wheelchairs," explained Maher Mahmoud, a 23-year-old Palestinian living in Cairo.
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