The three were among 12 Palestinians — mostly women, children, and the elderly — who entered Gaza on Monday through Rafah, told the AP that the occupation soldiers held them for several hours and inflicted what they said was humiliating treatment until they were released.
On Sunday, under international and regional pressure, Israel finally agreed to reopen the Rafah border crossing for wounded Palestinians to leave and some residents to return to the strip as per the truce deal between Tel Aviv and Hamas, brokered by Egypt, Qatar, Turkey, and the US in October of last year.
Asked about the reports of abuse, as per usual, the Israeli military claimed to AP, “No incidents of inappropriate conduct, mistreatment, apprehensions, or confiscation of property by the Israeli security establishment are known.”
‘A humiliation room’
The three women told AP the abuse took place at a screening station on the edge of the area of Gaza under Israeli military occupation, where all returnees were required to pass through after crossing Rafah.
The 12 returnees were brought by bus through the crossing, then drove until they reached the Israeli military zone, said one of the returnees, Rotana al-Regeb, who was coming back with her mother, Huda Abu Abed. The two had left Gaza in March last year for the mother to get medical treatment abroad.
At the screening station, they were ordered out of the bus, and members of an Israeli-backed Palestinian armed gang, Abu Shabab, including one woman, searched their bags and bodies, she told AP.
Israeli officers then called them one by one into a room, she said. She said her mother was called first. When al-Regeb was called, she said she found her mother, who is in her 50s, kneeling on the floor, blindfolded, with her hands handcuffed behind her back.
Al-Regeb said Israeli soldiers did the same with her and took her to an “interrogation room — or, a humiliation room.” They questioned her about Hamas and other things in Gaza, "things we didn’t know and had no connection to,” she said.
They also pressured her to act as an informant for the Israeli military, she said. “They threatened that they will detain me and I won’t return to my children,” said Al-Regeb, who has four daughters and a son, living with her husband in a tent in Khan Younis. “There was no beating, but there were insults, threats, and psychological pressure.”
Abu Abed, her mother, confirmed the account to the AP.
The third woman, Sabah Al-Qara, a 57-year-old from Khan Younis who left for medical treatment in Egypt in December 2023, gave a similar account, describing being handcuffed, blindfolded, and interrogated.
“They interrogated us and asked us about everything that happened in Gaza,” she said. “We were outside Gaza and knew nothing …. The Israelis humiliated us."
An arduous day
Under the terms of Rafah’s reopening, a European Union mission and Palestinian officials run the border crossing itself, though the names of those entering are first approved by Israel. Israel then has its screening facility some distance away. The military said authorities at the facility cross-check the identities of people returning to Gaza with Defense Ministry lists and screen their luggage.
Israeli occupation authorities banned returnees from bringing in any liquid, including drinking water, according to some of those who crossed back to Gaza on Monday. Each passenger was allowed to carry one mobile phone and 2,000 shekels, the equivalent of about $650, if they submitted a declaration 24 hours ahead of their travel.
Other electric and digital devices, as well as cigarettes, are not allowed, according to instructions that were posted on the Palestinian side of the crossing and shared with the AP.
Palestinians and rights groups have long maintained that Israel mistreats Palestinians passing through them and tries to gather information and recruit informants.
The women's ordeal came after a long and arduous day for the returnees, with far fewer Palestinians entering than expected and confusion over the rules.
Al-Regeb said 42 Palestinian patients and their relatives were brought to the Egyptian side of Rafah at 6 am and completed their paperwork to cross at around 10 am on Monday. They then had to wait until around 6 pm for the Israelis to open the gate for their buses. In the end, only one bus with the 12 people was allowed through, she and Al-Qara said.
On the Gazan side of the crossing, the European team searched their luggage — loaded with gifts for relatives — and took much of it, Al-Regeb and Al-Qara said. Al-Regeb said they took mobile phones and food, kids' games, and electronic games. "We were only allowed to take the clothes on our backs and one bag per person,” she said.
Tens of thousands seeking to come back to Gaza
Al-Regeb said that after they were released from the Israeli screening facility, UN buses took them to Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, where they finally arrived at 1 am on Tuesday.
“Thank God that I have returned and found my loved ones," she said. "I am happy that I am in my nation, with my family and with my children."
The Palestinian resistance group Hamas on Tuesday blasted Israel over the stories of abuse against the returnees, calling it “fascist behaviour and organized terrorism.” It called on mediators to take immediate action to stop the practices and ensure travelers’ safety and freedom during transit.
More than 110,000 Palestinians left Gaza in the first months of the Israeli genocidal war on Gaza before Tel Aviv seized and shut the Rafah crossing, and thousands of patients were evacuated abroad for treatment.
So far, some 30,000 Palestinians have registered with the Palestinian Embassy in Egypt to go back to Gaza, according to an embassy official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information.
The Israeli army has killed more than 530 Palestinians and wounded 1,500 others since the start of the truce five months ago.
On Wednesday, Israeli strikes killed more than 20 people across the strip, most of them women and children.
The ongoing Israeli attacks and the rising death toll have effectively undermined the truce, with many Palestinians in Gaza saying it does not feel as though the genocidal war on the strip that started in October 2023 has ended.
“The genocidal war against our people in the Gaza Strip continues,” said Dr Mohamed Abu Selmiya, director of the Shifa Hospital, in a Facebook post. “Where is the ceasefire? Where are the mediators?”
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