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| At the Border Between Gaza and Israel, a Crossing in Need of Travelers | At the Border Between Gaza and Israel, a Crossing in Need of Travelers |
| (about 2 hours later) | |
| EREZ CROSSING, at the Israel-Gaza border — At 375,000 square feet, the terminal through which travelers pass between Israel and the Gaza Strip is a vast, high-tech hangar with a capacity of 45,000 people per day. Current traffic: 400 or fewer. | EREZ CROSSING, at the Israel-Gaza border — At 375,000 square feet, the terminal through which travelers pass between Israel and the Gaza Strip is a vast, high-tech hangar with a capacity of 45,000 people per day. Current traffic: 400 or fewer. |
| It was built, for about $60 million, starting in 2005, the year Israel withdrew all its settlers and soldiers from Gaza in what many imagined as a pilot land-for-peace deal that might be a precursor to an independent Palestinian state. But in June 2007, four months after the terminal was completed, Hamas, the militant Islamist movement, wrested control of Gaza. Israel sharply reduced the number of exit permits as part of a broader clampdown. | |
| So the crossing, all but empty, sits as a symbol of the promise of more open passages if the intractable Israeli-Palestinian conflict were resolved — and of the perils that have befallen the people on both sides. It is a symbol, too, of the stark separation not just between Gaza and Israel but also between Gaza and the West Bank. | |
| “They must allow our brother and sister in the West Bank to come to Gaza, they should allow at least children to go from Gaza to Jerusalem, to Tel Aviv, to Ramallah,” said Faysal Shawa, a businessman who is among the privileged few with a permit. He travels through Erez about twice a month. | “They must allow our brother and sister in the West Bank to come to Gaza, they should allow at least children to go from Gaza to Jerusalem, to Tel Aviv, to Ramallah,” said Faysal Shawa, a businessman who is among the privileged few with a permit. He travels through Erez about twice a month. |
| “We want a safe passage as before, a peaceful one, yes,” Mr. Shawa said. “They can allow many, many, many, many, many more people out of Gaza, and that used to happen. It’s just political; they want to keep the pressure in Gaza.” | |
| During this summer’s seven-week battle between Israel and Hamas, Erez was where the first Israeli civilian was killed — a 37-year-old volunteer felled by a mortar shell while distributing food to soldiers. In the fighting’s final days, another attack on Erez wounded four people, temporarily closing the crossing. | During this summer’s seven-week battle between Israel and Hamas, Erez was where the first Israeli civilian was killed — a 37-year-old volunteer felled by a mortar shell while distributing food to soldiers. In the fighting’s final days, another attack on Erez wounded four people, temporarily closing the crossing. |
| Now it is one of the focal points of the cease-fire agreement that halted the hostilities last week with an unspecific promise for “freedom of people’s movement.” | |
| Shlomo Tsaban, who runs Erez for the Israeli Defense Ministry, said his boss had asked him to “maybe get ready for 5,000 people per day.” That would still be far below the level in September 2000, a month when Palestinian workers alone accounted for 500,000 exits through Erez, according to Gisha, an Israeli organization that tracks the crossing. | Shlomo Tsaban, who runs Erez for the Israeli Defense Ministry, said his boss had asked him to “maybe get ready for 5,000 people per day.” That would still be far below the level in September 2000, a month when Palestinian workers alone accounted for 500,000 exits through Erez, according to Gisha, an Israeli organization that tracks the crossing. |
| Mr. Tsaban, 54, a retired colonel, is of a generation that remembers when there were no formal crossings. Growing up in Ashkelon, less than 10 miles from Erez, he would travel with his mother on the bus to Gaza twice a week to shop for vegetables and fish. | Mr. Tsaban, 54, a retired colonel, is of a generation that remembers when there were no formal crossings. Growing up in Ashkelon, less than 10 miles from Erez, he would travel with his mother on the bus to Gaza twice a week to shop for vegetables and fish. |
| He also remembers the 2004 suicide bombing at Erez that killed three Israeli soldiers and one civilian worker; the day in 2007 when leaders of the rival Fatah faction poured through the crossing after Hamas had routed them from Gaza; and another suicide bombing in 2008. | |
| The lowest traffic, according to Gisha, was about 2,000 exits per month, after the Hamas takeover. During the first half of this year, there were 6,000 exits per month, as Israel approved more permits to compensate for Egypt’s frequent closing of Gaza’s southern Rafah crossing. Most of the travelers are patients needing chemotherapy, surgery or other medical treatment in Israel or the West Bank. The rest are merchants and international aid workers. | |
| “We are the nice people in Gaza, that Israel is sure we are O.K.,” said Mr. Shawa, an engineer who owns a construction firm and is deputy president of Paltrade, a group that works to increase exports. “A few vetted business people, they can cross; our wives and children cannot cross.” | “We are the nice people in Gaza, that Israel is sure we are O.K.,” said Mr. Shawa, an engineer who owns a construction firm and is deputy president of Paltrade, a group that works to increase exports. “A few vetted business people, they can cross; our wives and children cannot cross.” |
| Another traveler, who spoke on the condition that his name not be published because he had been barred for three years after speaking critically to Erez employees, said his brother was one of dozens of businessmen denied permits for refusing to become informants for Israel’s internal security service. This traveler also complained that the crossing closes at 7 p.m. (4 p.m. for those who do not live in Gaza), often making him cut meetings short. | Another traveler, who spoke on the condition that his name not be published because he had been barred for three years after speaking critically to Erez employees, said his brother was one of dozens of businessmen denied permits for refusing to become informants for Israel’s internal security service. This traveler also complained that the crossing closes at 7 p.m. (4 p.m. for those who do not live in Gaza), often making him cut meetings short. |
| Suhair Zaqqout, an aid worker, said she realized the psychological impact of the solidifying separation between the two societies a few years ago when she bought a violin in the Old City of Jerusalem for her son, Nour, then 12. The Israeli guards at Erez searched the case, suspecting that she was hiding a weapon, and were stunned to find a musical instrument. | Suhair Zaqqout, an aid worker, said she realized the psychological impact of the solidifying separation between the two societies a few years ago when she bought a violin in the Old City of Jerusalem for her son, Nour, then 12. The Israeli guards at Erez searched the case, suspecting that she was hiding a weapon, and were stunned to find a musical instrument. |
| “Their faces showed much, much more than words,” recalled Ms. Zaqqout, 44. “They were really, really surprised that people in Gaza, they are normal people, they play music, they enjoy.” | “Their faces showed much, much more than words,” recalled Ms. Zaqqout, 44. “They were really, really surprised that people in Gaza, they are normal people, they play music, they enjoy.” |
| Crossing into Gaza on Sunday, a reporter taking notes was stopped by two rifle-toting guards. After deciphering the scrawl — “12 passport-control booths, none open for business; a Palestinian family arriving with a girl in a wheelchair and two luggage carts laden with colorful suitcases” — they made her go through the elaborate security check normally required only for entry into Israel. | Crossing into Gaza on Sunday, a reporter taking notes was stopped by two rifle-toting guards. After deciphering the scrawl — “12 passport-control booths, none open for business; a Palestinian family arriving with a girl in a wheelchair and two luggage carts laden with colorful suitcases” — they made her go through the elaborate security check normally required only for entry into Israel. |
| “This is a secret crossing — this is Gaza, this is Hamas, this is animal,” Mr. Tsaban said by way of explanation afterward, in halting English. “This is not a normal crossing.” | “This is a secret crossing — this is Gaza, this is Hamas, this is animal,” Mr. Tsaban said by way of explanation afterward, in halting English. “This is not a normal crossing.” |
| Not at all normal. After passport control, travelers follow blue signs, with arrows that say “Gaza” in English, Hebrew and Arabic, through a maze of movable gray walls. Then there is a turnstile that is tough to navigate with even a small suitcase. About 30 yards farther is the concrete barrier that separates Israel from Gaza, where travelers wait, for what seems like several minutes, until someone, somewhere, makes the steel door slide open. | |
| The return trip into Israel feels like something out of a sci-fi film. After relinquishing all belongings, including passports and mobile phones, travelers pass alone through a series of glass booths between locked doors. To move forward, they must wait for red lights to turn green, sometimes aided by muffled instructions from the Israelis at the controls, which are several stories overhead and behind more glass. | The return trip into Israel feels like something out of a sci-fi film. After relinquishing all belongings, including passports and mobile phones, travelers pass alone through a series of glass booths between locked doors. To move forward, they must wait for red lights to turn green, sometimes aided by muffled instructions from the Israelis at the controls, which are several stories overhead and behind more glass. |
| On Thursday, the reporter was ordered into a special screening room where a sign promised that body searches would be conducted “with dignity” by someone of the same sex, and told to take off her shirt, which was run through a scanner. No explanation was provided. | On Thursday, the reporter was ordered into a special screening room where a sign promised that body searches would be conducted “with dignity” by someone of the same sex, and told to take off her shirt, which was run through a scanner. No explanation was provided. |
| The Gaza side has its own strangeness, reflecting the seven-year split between Hamas and Fatah, which dominates the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority. After a half-mile walk on a fenced-in path covered by corrugated metal, there is a checkpoint known as Hamsa-Hamsa, Arabic for “Five-Five,” where a man in a trailer writes down passport numbers for the Palestinian Authority. Then there is a three-minute, $3 cab ride to the Hamas-controlled checkpoint that some call Arba-Arba (“Four-Four”), where luggage is searched for contraband. (The reporter was once questioned about cold pills). | The Gaza side has its own strangeness, reflecting the seven-year split between Hamas and Fatah, which dominates the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority. After a half-mile walk on a fenced-in path covered by corrugated metal, there is a checkpoint known as Hamsa-Hamsa, Arabic for “Five-Five,” where a man in a trailer writes down passport numbers for the Palestinian Authority. Then there is a three-minute, $3 cab ride to the Hamas-controlled checkpoint that some call Arba-Arba (“Four-Four”), where luggage is searched for contraband. (The reporter was once questioned about cold pills). |
| Earlier this year, Hamas replaced the dilapidated trailers that had been its headquarters with a bigger, more modern facility. It was destroyed by Israeli strikes during the war. | Earlier this year, Hamas replaced the dilapidated trailers that had been its headquarters with a bigger, more modern facility. It was destroyed by Israeli strikes during the war. |