Murphy's Logic and reflections on 45+ years of broadcasting | SaltWireCAIRO - It took four failed attempts before Suzan Beseiso was able to get through the Rafah crossing into Egypt and escape the bombardment of the Gaza Strip.
After Israel imposed a total siege on Gaza in retaliation for an Oct. 7 incursion by Hamas, the Rafah crossing - the only crossing out of Gaza that does not border Israel - remained out of operation for nearly two weeks amid diplomatic wrangling over conditions for allowing aid to enter and evacuees to leave.
Beseiso, who has spent about half her life in Gaza and half in the U.S., said she had crammed with relatives into a single room in a stranger's house, ran short of food and water, and endured sleepless nights during air strikes. They narrowly escaped, she said, but the Palestinians received an order to shut the border and the family retreated in a terrifying taxi ride back into Gaza.
Beseiso was fortunate to be among the first batches cleared to leave out of a total of some 7,000 foreign passport holders expected to depart. But she felt torn, not wanting to relive the pain of separation that her grandmother, now 89, had experienced when she was displaced from her hometown of Jaffa 75 years ago.
On the road through Sinai, she said her grandmother looked suspiciously at newly built housing, asking the driver what it was for and declaring that she would only stay in Egypt for one month then return home.Another Palestinian-American, Jana Timraz, 19, crossed to Egypt with her sister and 3-month-old son, but only after pleading with border officials late into the evening because her son's name was not originally on the pre-approved list.