The Israelis have been using their control over the Rafah crossing in southern Gaza to further choke Palestinians and deprive them of the only exit from the besieged enclave. Those trying to enter Gaza from Egypt are being subjected to “degrading and humiliating treatment” and often have their belongings, including medicines and other essentials, confiscated by the Israelis, making the return journey extremely perilous.
“The crossing has ceased to function merely as a civilian passage and has instead been turned into a systematic tool of repression and collective humiliation,” Al Mezan Centre for Human Rights reported on Sunday.
The October 2025 Gaza “ceasefire” agreement stipulated that the Rafah crossing would reopen for the pedestrian passage of displaced Palestinians, facilitated through coordinated supervision by European Union monitors and Egyptian authorities. The Israelis, however, opened the crossing only in early February this year, with severe restrictions.
Moreover, they shut it down completely on a whim, leaving countless patients waiting for medical evacuation abroad. Many have died waiting. Before the opening of the crossing in February, Dalia Abu Kashef, 28, died waiting for a liver transplant. “We found a volunteer — her brother — who was ready to donate part of his liver,” her husband Muatasem El-Rass told Reuters. “We were waiting for the crossing to open so we could travel and do the surgery, hoping for a happy ending. But she deteriorated badly and died.”
Currently, thousands of patients with life-threatening illnesses, including more than 11,000 cancer patients, hope for a speedy evacuation before their conditions deteriorate further. But the Israeli restrictions on medical evacuations continue to leave many without access to the urgent, specialised treatment they need.
Over 11,000 cancer patients in Gaza face slow death amid Israeli siege and devastation of hospitals
As the Israelis have systematically decimated Gaza’s medical infrastructure during the ongoing genocide and severely restricted the entry of medicines and medical equipment, patients in the enclave are enduring extreme hardships.
Severe restrictions
According to Al Mezan, when the crossing opened in February, the Israelis allowed “approximately 150 people, including patients and their companions … to cross each day, while an equivalent number was permitted to enter the Gaza Strip, except on official holidays.”
That number has dropped to 95 in August.
“Travel from the Gaza Strip has become an extremely complex and distressing humanitarian ordeal,” Al Mezan reported. “Palestinians, particularly patients and injured persons, face lengthy and complicated procedures that prevent them from exercising their rights to access medical treatment and freedom of movement.”
The report added that “the restrictions imposed at the crossing extend beyond controlling the number of travellers to the manner in which they are treated while crossing, in ways that violate their dignity, safety and personal property.”
Harrowing testimonies
Those returning to the Gaza Strip through the Rafah crossing have harrowing stories of mistreatment and humiliation at the hands of the Israelis. They also testified to how the Israelis have employed criminal gangs in Gaza to perform searches and intimidate, threaten, and steal from them.
“Before reaching the Israeli army checkpoint, we were searched by an armed group affiliated with it,” a woman identified only as H.S. told Al Mezan. “The search procedures were extremely brutal and humiliating. They confiscated medication for my diabetes, as well as two eye drops that I was carrying for my injured grandson. They also confiscated a mobile phone screen. When I pleaded with them to return it, they directed abusive and insulting language at me, despite the fact that I am an elderly woman. At that moment, I felt that we had lost all our dignity and that we no longer had any existence.”
“I returned to the Gaza Strip at the beginning of July 2026, and I believe that day was one of the most difficult days I have experienced because of the extremely strict inspection procedures,” a woman identified as E.M. told Al Mezan.
“Despite complying with the instructions and carrying only one bag weighing no more than 20 kilograms, I was treated very badly. Members of the armed group affiliated with the army threw the contents of the bag onto the ground while searching it, causing our belongings to become covered in dirt. Unfortunately, they also confiscated pieces of gold that I was wearing. When I objected, they threatened to arrest me and intensified the search. To this day, I do not know where I can turn to recover the gold that was confiscated from me.”
“I travelled for treatment in March 2024 and returned to the Gaza Strip after completing my treatment in early July 2026, accompanied by three of my children,” another woman testified.
“The journey was extremely difficult. I had four bags, one for each of us, as each child was permitted to have one bag. However, during the inspection, more than half of our belongings were confiscated, including the children’s toys, some medicines and clothing, which they threw onto the ground. We spent a long time collecting some of our belongings from the ground, including some of the medication I needed for my treatment. I spoke to them repeatedly and pleaded with them to return some of the confiscated medicines and supplies, but to no avail.”
Israeli impunity
These Israeli violations have been recorded by humanitarian organisations since the reopening of the Rafah crossing.
“These violations we are seeing against Palestinians returning to Gaza are part of a broader pattern of violations and dehumanization, and are discouraging people from returning,” Ajith Sunghay, Head of UN Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OCHA), said last week.
“These are vulnerable people returning to their occupied land that has been devastated by years of Israeli bombardment and starved of life’s basic essentials. And now they are having to endure this on their return? It is simply abhorrent.”
The Israelis take pride in their dehumanisation of Palestinians, while global organisations have been exposed over the past three years as incompetent and impotent in carrying out the responsibilities they were purportedly tasked with.
Palestinians, enduring a genocide for nearly three years, do not even have the privilege of returning home with medicines they desperately need to survive.
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Let's face it! !!! These BASTARDS do every inhumane thing they can do as inhumanely as possible. 😡😡😡😡
And to keep their words in agreements??? No fool expects such gentlemanly cvilized conduct from monsters.
Thank you!
Israel criminal and killer baby