36,000 Gazans have left the Strip, per report

Currently, only sick and wounded Palestinians who will receive medical treatment abroad, along with their family members, Gazans with dual citizenship, and those who manage to obtain visas to third countries are legally permitted to leave.

By JNS

Some 36,000 Gazans, or almost 2% of the coastal enclave’s population, have left the Strip since the start of the war prompted by Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre in southern Israel, Channel 12 News reported on Friday.

Most of the departing Gazans went to Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, countries in Western Europe and Romania, the report said.

According to Channel 12 Palestinian Affairs Correspondent Ohad Hemo, 2,000 Gazans exited through Israeli territory, including via the Ramon Airport near Eilat or the Allenby Crossing with Jordan.

However, the vast majority of those leaving left through Gaza’s Rafah Crossing with Egypt, which briefly reopened on Jan. 31 as part of the now-expired truce between Israel and Hamas. The southernmost crossing closed when war resumed on March 18.

The Israel Defense Forces did not immediately respond on Friday to JNS’s request for comment on the accuracy of the data cited by Channel 12.

Currently, only certain categories of people are legally permitted to leave Gaza—sick and wounded Palestinians who will receive medical treatment abroad, along with their family members; Gazans with dual citizenship; and those who manage to obtain visas to third countries.

However, scores of Palestinians are leaving Gaza through its southern border by paying up to $10,000 to “brokers” with alleged links to Egyptian intelligence, The Guardian reported over a year ago.

A survey published in Britain’s Telegraph last month revealed that 52% of Arabs from Gaza, or more than 1.1 million people, would leave the Strip either temporarily or permanently if given the opportunity.

Residents under the age of 34 and those living in the most heavily damaged areas of Gaza City and Khan Yunis expressed the strongest interest in leaving.

On April 1, Interior Minister Moshe Arbel visited Ramon Airport to inspect “the voluntary departure process” of Palestinians from Gaza.

“Dozens of Gazans were flown to Leipzig, Germany, on a designated flight accompanied by German diplomats today,” said the Population and Immigration Authority, part of the Interior Ministry, also on April 1.

“Since the beginning of the initiative, hundreds of Gazans have been flown to a third country, most of them to Germany, Romania and the United Arab Emirates,” the government body stated at the time.

Jerusalem’s Security Cabinet on March 22 approved Defense Minister Israel Katz’s proposal to establish a directorate within his ministry to facilitate the voluntary emigration of residents from the Strip.

Katz stressed that the initiative aligns with the vision of U.S. President Donald Trump, who is seeking to turn the 25 miles of Gaza’s coastline into a real estate development and relocate some 2.2 million residents.

“We are working with all means to implement the U.S. president’s vision, and we will allow any Gaza resident who wants to move to a third country to do so,” Katz said last month.