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Obstacles at Rafah: Why Foreigners Can’t Exit?

Palestinians with foreign nationalities await the opening of Rafah crossing (AP)
Palestinians with foreign nationalities await the opening of Rafah crossing (AP)
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Obstacles at Rafah: Why Foreigners Can’t Exit?

Palestinians with foreign nationalities await the opening of Rafah crossing (AP)
Palestinians with foreign nationalities await the opening of Rafah crossing (AP)

Foreigners from various nationalities stuck in the Gaza Strip are eagerly anticipating promises to exit the enclave through the Rafah border crossing with Egypt.

While Egyptian authorities affirm that the crossing is open for aid deliveries and the passage of foreigners, Matthew Miller, spokesperson for the US State Department, has accused Hamas of “hindering the departure of foreigners and making the situation at the Rafah border crossing extremely challenging.”

Hamas, in a statement to Asharq Al-Awsat, labeled Miller’s accusation as “false,” asserting that “the closure of Gaza is due to Israeli occupation.”

Following the Israeli attack on Gaza over two weeks ago, Washington urged US citizens there to head to the Rafah border crossing, with the intention of coordinating their evacuation as quickly as possible.

However, Egypt “refused to allow the exit of foreign nationals and dual citizens from Gaza until humanitarian aid was allowed to enter Gaza through the crossing,” as reported by Egyptian official media sources at the time.

The number of US citizens in Gaza is estimated to be between 500 and 600, most of whom were visiting their families.

However, their departure has been hindered by “repeated Israeli airstrikes on the Palestinian side of the Rafah border crossing,” according to The Washington Post.

“Egyptian authorities have repeatedly confirmed their readiness to allow the passage of individuals with various nationalities, and the border crossing has not been closed by Egyptian authorities,” a senior Egyptian security source told Asharq Al-Awsat.

“However, the frequent Israeli shelling of the crossing from the Palestinian side, damage to the road leading to it, and the concern for civilian casualties have all prevented their departure,” added the source, who requested anonymity.

Miller told CNN that the sporadic presence of Hamas at the Rafah border crossing has made the situation “extremely difficult,” but Egyptians are ready to take in US citizens and foreign nationals who make it to their side of the border.

Husam Badran, a member of the Political Bureau and the Head of the National Relations Office of Hamas, dismissed the statement made by Miller as “false” regarding Hamas obstructing the departure of foreign nationals at the Rafah border crossing.

“The only crossing for the Gaza Strip is currently closed due to Israeli occupation, which enforces the blockade of Gaza with overt US support,” Badran told Asharq Al-Awsat.

Badran emphasized that “the continuous airstrikes on Gaza have disrupted all aspects of life there.”

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On Lebanon Border, Israel and Hezbollah’s Deadly Game of Patience

Smoke is seen as an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is intercepted following its launch from Lebanon, amid cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, at Kibbutz Eilon in northern Israel, July 23, 2024. (Reuters)
Smoke is seen as an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is intercepted following its launch from Lebanon, amid cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, at Kibbutz Eilon in northern Israel, July 23, 2024. (Reuters)
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On Lebanon Border, Israel and Hezbollah’s Deadly Game of Patience

Smoke is seen as an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is intercepted following its launch from Lebanon, amid cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, at Kibbutz Eilon in northern Israel, July 23, 2024. (Reuters)
Smoke is seen as an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is intercepted following its launch from Lebanon, amid cross-border hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, at Kibbutz Eilon in northern Israel, July 23, 2024. (Reuters)

In deserted villages and communities near the southern Lebanon border, Israeli troops and Hezbollah fighters have watched each other for months, shifting and adapting in a battle for the upper hand while they wait to see if a full scale war will come.

Ever since the start of the Gaza war last October, the two sides have exchanged daily barrages of rockets, artillery, missile fire and air strikes in a standoff that has just stopped short of full-scale war.

Tens of thousands have been evacuated from both sides of the border, and hopes that children may be able to return for the start of the new school year in September appear to have been dashed following an announcement by Israeli Education Minister Yoav Kisch on Tuesday that conditions would not allow it.

"The war is almost the same for the past nine months," Lieutenant Colonel Dotan, an Israeli officer, who could only be identified by his first name. "We have good days of hitting Hezbollah and bad days where they hit us. It's almost the same, all year, all the nine months."

As the summer approaches its peak, the smoke trails of drones and rockets in the sky have become a daily sight, with missiles regularly setting off brush fires in the thickly wooded hills along the border.

Israeli strikes have killed nearly 350 Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon and more than 100 civilians, including medics, children and journalists, while 10 Israeli civilians, a foreign agricultural worker and 20 Israeli soldiers have been killed.

Even so, as the cross border firing has continued, Israeli forces have been training for a possible offensive in Lebanon which would dramatically increase the risk of a wider regional war, potentially involving Iran and the United States.

That risk was underlined at the weekend when the Yemen-based Houthis, a militia which like Hezbollah is backed by Iran, sent a drone to Tel Aviv where it caused a blast that killed a man and prompted Israel to launch a retaliatory raid the next day.

Standing in his home kibbutz of Eilon, where only about 150 farmers and security guards remain from a normal population of 1,100, Lt. Colonet Dotan said the two sides have been testing each other for months, in a constantly evolving tactical battle.

"This war taught us patience," said Dotan. "In the Middle East, you need patience."

He said Israeli troops had seen an increasing use of Iranian drones, of a type frequently seen in Ukraine, as well as Russian-made Kornet anti tank missiles which were increasingly targeting houses as Israeli tank forces adapted their own tactics in response.

"Hezbollah is a fast-learning organization and they understood that UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) are the next big thing and so they went and bought and got trained in UAVs," he said.

Israel had responded by adapting its Iron Dome air defense system and focusing its own operations on weakening Hezbollah's organizational structure by attacking its experienced commanders, such as Ali Jaafar Maatuk, a field commander in the elite Radwan forces unit who was killed last week.

"So that's another weak point we found. We target them and we look for them on a daily basis," he said.

Even so, as the months have passed, the wait has not been easy for Israeli troops brought up in a doctrine of maneuver and rapid offensive operations.

"When you're on defense, you can't defeat the enemy. We understand that, we have no expectations," he said, "So we have to wait. It's a patience game."