Khan Younis, Gaza Strip – When Rotana al-Raqab learned that her name and her mother’s were included on the first list of Palestinians allowed to return to Gaza through the Rafah crossing, she felt, briefly, that the long months she had spent stranded in Egypt were finally coming to an end.
But what she initially believed would be a path back to her five children instead turned into a gruelling ordeal of hours of waiting, body searches, interrogations, and humiliating treatment at the hands of Israeli forces.
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Rotana, 31, left Gaza last March with her mother, Huda Abu Abed, 56, seeking urgent medical treatment after being told she needed a major heart operation.
They left behind Rotana’s six children with family members, who at the time were displaced in the al-Mawasi area of Khan Younis.
Throughout the separation, Rotana says the fear of what was happening at home – as Israel continued its genocidal war on Gaza – never left her.
“All that time, I was on edge, waiting for the crossing to open so that I could return to my children,” she told Al Jazeera.
“My husband was injured in an Israeli strike, and I was nearly going mad with fear and worry. I spoke with them every day despite how hard calls and internet access were.”
From Egypt to Rafah
Rotana and Huda found out that they would be allowed to return to Gaza the day before the crossing partially opened on Monday.
They were contacted by the Palestinian embassy in Cairo, which gave them the news that they were among the names on the first list of those crossing.
The reopening of the crossing is part of the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire deal, which the United States said had begun in mid-January, despite the continuation of Israeli attacks on Gaza.
Rafah is the only border crossing from Gaza that does not cross Israeli territory. But it has been largely closed since Israeli forces took control of it in May 2024.
Multiple returnee testimonies indicate that the crossing is functioning only partially, allowing very small numbers of people to use it on each side.
Reports from the opening days show that some travellers were sent back at the Palestinian side of the crossing, despite having already cleared Egyptian procedures, often for unspecified “security screening” reasons, or over the size of their luggage, without a detailed official explanation from Israeli authorities.
According to Egyptian officials, roughly 50 people reached the Palestinian side of the crossing on Tuesday, but Israeli authorities forcibly returned 38 of them, permitting only 12 to enter Gaza after extensive searches, detentions, and interrogations.
Rotana describes approximately 50 travellers being present on the Egyptian side of the crossing on Monday.
After completing procedures there, the group waited for hours for the Palestinian side of the gates, under the control of Israel, to open, a delay that lasted until evening hours.
But even then, not everyone was allowed to pass.
“At first, they let nine people through and told [others] to wait. A little later, they let [some of us] pass, but the rest were sent back,” she said, adding that she believed Israel was behind the decision.
Egyptian media – citing Egyptian officials – also reported that roughly 50 people reached the Palestinian side of the crossing on Tuesday, but that Israeli authorities forcibly returned 38 of them, permitting only 12 to enter Gaza after extensive searches, detentions, and interrogations.
Since its partial reopening on Monday, the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza has allowed only very limited movement.
In the first days of operation, just more than 120 people have crossed according to the Gaza Ministry of Interior – the majority of them returning to Gaza – while dozens more, including patients in need of urgent medical care, were prevented from crossing.
Palestinian health authorities report that tens of thousands remain on waiting lists, including more than 18,500 patients requiring specialised treatment unavailable inside Gaza, as a result of Israel’s devastation of the enclave.
Israel has framed the restrictions as being necessary for security reasons.
Body searches and interrogation
Finally, by Monday evening, Rotana and Huda were able to cross to the Palestinian side, where the European Union Border Assistance Mission for the Rafah Crossing Point (EUBAM Rafah) are operating.
Rotana thought that their ordeal was finally over – and that she would finally be able to reunite with her children and husband. Instead, she met a new phase of hardship.
“They put us into a vehicle flanked by Israeli army cars, one in front and one behind and then stopped us in an open area,” she said.
There, Rotana and the others were subjected to full-body searches carried out by a woman accompanied by two men who identified themselves as part of “counterterrorism forces” – an apparent reference to Palestinian militias working with the Israeli military in Gaza.
“One of them told us they were fighting terrorism and lived in a ‘humanitarian city’, welcoming anyone who wanted to join them,” she added.
“I didn’t engage with his remarks, and then they began scolding us because we wanted to return to Gaza.”
Following this, Rotana was taken for interrogation by an Israeli military officer, which she said lasted for three hours. “It was interrogation, pressure, and degrading language,” she recounted.
Rotana said she and the others were insulted by the officer, who attempted to provoke them, and called them “humiliated”.
She remembered being asked, “Why did you come back to Gaza? Do you want to live in a tent without water or electricity? Or on a roof that doesn’t exist?”
“I tried to hold myself together and not let his words affect me,” she said.
Huda described having her hands bound and eyes covered before she, too, was interrogated.
“[An Israeli soldier] even told me to tell my family to prepare immediately for forced relocation from Gaza,” she said, referencing the threat by the Israeli right-wing to force Palestinians to leave Gaza in what would be ethnic cleansing.
During her own two hours of detention, Huda was separated from her daughter and said the experience was frightening.
“I was terrified. The place around me was dark and empty like a desert, and I didn’t know where they had taken Rotana and the other women, until they released me and I saw them again in the bus,” she said.
Return
In a press statement, the International Commission to Support Palestinian People’s Rights (ICSPR) strongly condemned the strict Israeli restrictions on the operation of the crossing, saying that they had turned “travel and return [to Gaza] into a symbolic procedure that falls short of a genuine and comprehensive opening”.
The ICSPR added that Israeli restrictions – including requiring pre-approved security clearances, imposing strict passenger quotas, and enforcing complex procedures for travel – had turned the Rafah crossing “into a tool of control and domination rather than a humanitarian passage”.
The organisation also condemned the treatment of Palestinians at the crossing, including beatings, humiliating body searches, prolonged handcuffing, confiscation of personal belongings, and threats of arrest.
When Rotana and Huda were finally allowed to continue their journey, they found that Israeli forces had confiscated nearly all of what they had packed for the children.
“I brought toys and headphones for my daughters … things to make them happy,” Rotana said.
“They took everything. Even food was forbidden,” she explained. “I had promised my children sweets, something to celebrate with after months of hardship, but they took all of it.”
Despite it all, reuniting with Rotana’s children – Huda’s grandchildren – was at the forefront of their minds.
“I returned with my daughter even before I completed my treatment because her children couldn’t bear to be apart from her any longer,” Huda told Al Jazeera.
“In the end, we are returning to our country no matter what, so why were we treated this way?”
After a long and exhausting day, Rotana and her mum arrived in Gaza late at night on Monday, at the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis.
“The journey was deadly … but thank God, we finally arrived and reunited with our loved ones,” Rotana said calmly.
