Although Mona Rostam is living in Egypt, her heart remains in Gaza. “I work nonstop, because in Cairo there is electricity and internet.” In constant contact with Gazans, she said she “felt as though she was living in Gaza.” “This can’t go on. I have to go back there.”

As soon as the partial reopening of the Rafah border crossing under Israeli and Egyptian control was announced, beginning Sunday, February 1, this official with the Palestinian organization Democracy and Workers’ Rights in Palestine registered on a list posted online by Palestinian authorities to return to the enclave. Many of her compatriots in Egypt shared her intention. Some 80,000 people sought refuge after the Hamas attacks on October 7, 2023, and the start of the war waged by Israel in response.

The 46-year-old woman already knows she no longer has a home. Before October 7, 2023, Mona Rostam lived in Al-Zahra, one of Gaza’s calmest and most upscale areas, and among the rare places with green spaces. That privileged neighborhood ceased to exist on October 20, 2023, destroyed by Israeli airstrikes.

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