How much do Palestinians pay to get out of Gaza?

On a clear night in March, Ahmed sat on a rooftop in Rafah, in southern Gaza. It was the only place he could get a phone signal in the crumbling and crowded city. Two weeks earlier, Ahmed had paid $5,000 to Hala Consulting and Tourism Services, a travel agency in Cairo, to get him onto a register of those allowed to cross into Egypt. New lists are published each day on Telegram and Facebook. Ahmed’s contact had assured him that his name would appear soon. At last, at 10pm, it popped up. Early the next day, he went to the border. Getting across was a confusing process. The Egyptian officials, he said, treated Palestinians “like animals”. But he made it into Egypt and then on to Cairo.

Until October 7th, Palestinians who wanted to leave Gaza had in theory two choices: a few could use the Erez crossing, in the north of the strip, monitored by Israel, or they could try the southern one at Rafah, overseen by Egypt. Erez is now closed to those leaving Gaza. The cost of getting through Rafah, the city to which around 1.4m Gazans have fled, is extortionate.