‘Only Those With Money Can Leave’: Gazans Pay Thousands to Escape Through Egypt

...For years, a network of Egypt and Gaza-based travel agents and fixers have offered fast-tracked passage through Rafah for a price, ranging from several hundred to several thousand dollars, depending in part on how frequently the border has been open for crossing.

The deeper the desperation to leave, the better the business. More than 100 days into the conflict, during which Gaza’s other Israeli-controlled exit has been shut, rates are soaring. While the prices fluctuate wildly, some brokers are now charging Palestinians between $4,500 and $10,000 to secure a crossing permit, according to more than a dozen interviews conducted by OCCRP and the Cairo-based SaheehMasr media platform. The rate for those with Egyptian nationality is lower, at around $650 to $1,200 per person.

Reporters spoke to 15 Palestinians and Egyptians who had reached out to brokers to ask about leaving. Two had successfully left the enclave by paying $4,500 each in fees, while three said they had been scammed by the agents and lost their cash. Others were desperately trying to raise money by selling their gold and other personal belongings, borrowing from friends and relatives, or through online crowdfunding.

Rasha said she was told it would cost a total of $40,000 to get her Palestinian husband and three children out through Rafah...

Some of these offers are openly advertised by travel agencies online, or shared in social media groups. Reporters who contacted the listed numbers were given quotes on the spot, such as an Egyptian agency that said it charged Palestinians $7,000, Egyptians $1,200, and other foreign passport holders $3,000 to exit.

Reporters were not able to determine exactly how these providers manage to arrange the crossings. But their ability to secure fast clearance from the Egyptian security services that control the border has long spurred allegations that a system of bribes is greasing the wheels.

“In 2022, we already collected testimonies about Egyptian officers extorting Palestinians to allow them to exit from Rafah,” Ahmed Benchemsi, the regional communications director for Human Rights Watch, told OCCRP...

Egypt has denied any bribery or extortion is taking place. In a statement published on January 10, the head of Egypt’s state Information Service, Diaa Rashwan, rejected the “unfounded allegations” that additional fees are being imposed on Palestinians at the crossing.

The agency did not respond to OCCRP’s requests to comment...

While there are a number of travel agencies and independent brokers active in the business, Hala is one of the most prominent. Gazans who posted online asking for services were often directed to the Egyptian firm, which lists offices in Cairo and in Rafah on its website, but also works with at least seven local agents in Gaza, according to its social media posts.

The company has powerful backers: it is owned by the prominent Egyptian businessman Ibrahim Al-Organi, who heads the Tarabin tribe in the Sinai desert bordering Israel and has other business partnerships with Egypt’s state.

Hala is one of eight companies operating under his Organi Group, which also includes a joint venture, Misr Sinai, with the Defense Ministry’s industrial conglomerate, the National Services Projects Organization (NSPO), Organi said in a 2014 interview with the Egyptian outlet Youm7.

In the interview, Organi said the NSPO owned 51 percent of the company’s shares, in partnership with two companies owned by the General Intelligence Service. OCCRP could not confirm whether there have been any changes in ownership in the years since...

The Organi Group and Hala did not respond to OCCRP’s requests to comment...

To see how the “coordination” process worked during wartime, reporters reached out to more than a dozen agencies and brokers.

The head of a Gaza-based travel agency, which was listed as one of Hala’s agents in a company Instagram post, told a reporter posing as a potential customer that he would need to pay $5,000 each for his Palestinian sister and mother to leave Gaza within seven days...

While the Rafah border started opening in November to allow evacuations of foreign-passport holders and a select number of wounded Palestinians, many in Gaza’s Egyptian community feel abandoned by their government.

“I am Egyptian. My husband and children are all Egyptian. How can I be asked to pay money to enter my country,” a woman with the username Um Mohammad wrote on Facebook.

Since the war broke out, Hala has been charging Egyptians $650 for an exit permit, issued within a maximum of seven to 10 days, according to a company agent...