For the first time since the closure of the Rafah border crossing in May 2024, the first group of non-medical travelers exited the Gaza Strip for Egypt on Tuesday. The individuals were registered through the Egyptian company Hala Consulting and Tourism, a traveler confirmed to Al Manassa.
According to the traveler, who requested anonymity, the initial group comprised 18 people, all from families who had registered for travel with the company—owned by businessman Ibrahim Al-Organi—since early 2024, following the Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip in October 2023.
Hala Consulting and Tourism has become part of a parallel system for organizing travel amid restrictions on the Rafah crossing and its frequent full or partial closures in recent years. Hala's name has been linked as an intermediary between travelers and border authorities, where names are included on special lists in exchange for fees that vary according to circumstances.
The traveler disclosed that he registered with the company in February 2024 and paid, through an agent in Cairo, $5,000 for each adult and $2,500 for each child. He noted that he received a call two days ago informing him of the travel date. He was then asked to go with his wife and children to the vicinity of the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis on Monday morning. There, the travelers gathered and boarded a bus that took them toward the crossing, accompanied by UN-marked vehicles, passing through an Israeli military checkpoint in Rafah before contact with him was lost.
This account corroborates testimony from another traveler registered with the company who told Al Manassa that he contacted his agent in Cairo and was informed he could leave with his family in the coming days via the same mechanism. He declined to be named for fear of being removed from the travel lists or facing questioning during the crossing.
In late April 2024, the British newspaper The Times reported that Hala earned millions of dollars in a matter of weeks by charging Palestinians to exit Gaza for Egypt. The report noted that these profits likely amounted to at least $88 million between early March and April 2024 from the travel of more than 20,000 people.
In parallel, a group of patients and their companions departed the Gaza Strip on Tuesday through the Rafah crossing. They gathered at the Palestinian Red Crescent Society’s Medical Rehabilitation Hospital in Khan Younis and were transported by ambulances coordinated by the World Health Organization.
Raed Al-Nims, spokesperson for the Red Crescent in Gaza, told Al Manassa that the group included 47 travelers, among them 24 patients and 23 companions. He noted a recent decline in the number of travelers, which had risen to about 150 patients and companions per day, without specifying the reasons for the decrease.
The Rafah crossing was closed in May 2024 after the Israeli occupation army seized control of the Palestinian side, coinciding with military operations in the city of Rafah. It was partially reopened last February for the passage of the sick and wounded, under the arrangements of the ceasefire agreement signed in October 2025, which continues to face Israeli violations.
