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<a class="gmail-domain gmail-reader-domain" href="https://mondoweiss.net/2026/02/we-own-gaza-now-inside-an-israeli-interrogation-room-at-the-rafah-border-crossing/?ml_recipient=180471500939199908&ml_link=180471356825011658&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=2026-02-26&utm_campaign=Daily+Headlines+RSS+Automation+-+8am">mondoweiss.net</a>
<div class="gmail-domain-border"></div><h1 class="gmail-reader-title">\u2018We own Gaza now\u2019: Inside an Israeli interrogation room at the Rafah border crossing</h1>
<span class="gmail-post-author"><span class="gmail-by">By</span> <a href="https://mondoweiss.net/author/tareqhajjaj/" title="Posts by Tareq S. Hajjaj" class="gmail-author gmail-url gmail-fn" rel="author">Tareq S. Hajjaj</a></span>
<span class="gmail-meta-sep"></span>
<span class="gmail-date-link">February 25, 2026</span>
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<img src="cid:ii_mm3mycge0" alt="image.png" width="494" height="336"><br><p>
<font size="1">A group of Palestinians arrived at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis after
arriving Gaza through the Rafah border crossing, February 22, 2026.
(Photo: Tariq Mohammad/APA Images) </font></p><p>Palestinians returning to Gaza through the Rafah border crossing
report systematic harassment, beatings, torture, and being told to leave
Gaza with their families by Israeli border agents. Returnees who spoke
to <em>Mondoweiss</em> described how Israeli authorities subjected them
to hours of intensive interrogation, during which they attempted to
recruit some travelers as informants.</p>
<p>As the Rafah crossing partially resumed operations in late January
after having been closed by Israel in May 2024, increasing numbers of
Palestinians who had left for Egypt during the war have begun returning
to the Strip. Palestinians have described the <a href="https://mondoweiss.net/2026/02/handcuffs-interrogation-humiliation-palestinians-describe-israeli-treatment-at-rafah-crossing/">harrowing treatment</a>
they experienced at the crossing. Additional interviews with returnees
upon arrival reveal that travelers received two distinct messages from
the authorities with whom they interacted during the journey. </p>
<p>The first appeared to come from the Egyptian side, who urged
travelers to remain in Gaza and reject all offers of emigration. The
second seemed to have been planted by the Israelis, particularly through
interrogation rooms. The message was nearly identical for every person
crossing through Rafah: </p>
<p>Gaza now belongs to Israel, and Palestinians will inevitably be
forced out of the Strip \u2014 \u201ceven if it takes twenty years,\u201d according to
statements attributed to Israeli interrogators.</p>
<p>Every Palestinian making the journey must undergo mandatory
questioning, in which Israeli officers alternate between aggressive
intimidation tactics and feigned concern and helpfulness. Almost all
travelers were detained for more than two hours, and sometimes up to the
whole day. In all cases, their hands were bound, and their eyes were
blindfolded during the entire interrogation. Israeli officers proposed
what they phrased as \u201cgenerous offers\u201d to the travelers to assist them
and their families in leaving Gaza permanently. Others were offered to
work for the Israeli army by providing it with information from within
Gaza upon their return.</p>
<p>Maha Abu Qamar, who returned to Gaza with her two children, ages 11
and 13, described the Egyptian side as routine: bags were searched,
passports stamped, and travelers were allowed to pass through toward
Gaza without incident. When they entered Gaza to hand in their
passports, they were received by armed members of the infamous <a href="https://mondoweiss.net/2025/06/inside-the-hamas-unit-fighting-israeli-armed-gangs-that-loot-aid-and-facilitate-displacement-in-gaza/">Israel-backed militia</a> formerly led by the late <a href="https://mondoweiss.net/2025/12/gaza-gang-leader-and-israeli-collaborator-yasser-abu-shabab-has-been-killed-reports-say/">Yasser Abu Shabab</a>,
who was reportedly killed by one of his men in December of last year.
\u201cAbu Shabab\u2019s group received us and searched us. They did not abuse us
or cross any lines,\u201d Abu Qamar told <em>Mondoweiss</em>. \u201cThey took our
passports to hand them to the Israelis, along with our mobile phones,
while our belongings remained outside. Then they led us into a makeshift
room. It was wrapped in plastic sheeting from the side and was open at
the top.\u201d</p>
<p>The crossing on the Palestinian side is no longer a place fit for
human use, travelers say. They walk through sandy dirt paths with fences
on either side, describing the Israeli-controlled area as a flattened
\u201cdesert.\u201d As of April of last year, Israel systematically <a href="https://mondoweiss.net/2025/04/rafah-no-longer-exists-this-is-part-of-israels-plan-to-permanently-occupy-gaza/">razed the southern Rafah governorate</a>.</p>
<p>Abu Qamar says that after waiting briefly, an Israeli female soldier
arrived and grabbed her by the hand, ordering her to face the wall. She
then bound her hands and placed a blindfold over her eyes. She was led
through what she described as several winding corridors until they
reached the interrogation room. She sat in the room for ten minutes
before being taken out of it, only to be called back in and led through
the same process. The entire time, she was handcuffed and blindfolded.</p>
<h2><strong>Offers of collaboration</strong></h2>
<p>Interviews conducted by <em>Mondoweiss</em> show little difference
from one interrogation to another. The questions are the same, the
methods nearly identical. Returnees consistently say that the message
conveyed by interrogators was uniform: Gaza will not be rebuilt, it will
remain destroyed for 20 or 30 years, and Israel will ultimately take it
over and expel all Palestinians from the Strip.</p>
<p>No travelers are able to describe the interrogation rooms, as they
remained blindfolded the entire time. One returnee, Sabah al-Rakab, 41,
tried to raise her head when she was being questioned, but when she did
so, an interrogator immediately hit her head with his hand, ordering her
to keep it down.</p>
<p>Abu Qamar says the first question she was asked was what she was
doing on October 7. \u201cI told him I was awake, preparing my children for
school, when we were surprised by what happened,\u201d she said. He asked
where her husband was at the time. She replied that he was at home,
resting after his night shift, before leaving for his daytime job. </p>
<p>The interrogator then asked about a relative and whether he worked
for Hamas, which she denied. He pressed her, accusing her of lying, but
she insisted she was telling the truth. He then asked about her nephew,
repeating the same question. He was a nurse, she said, but she didn\u2019t
know exactly where he worked, except that he had trained at al-Nasr Eye
Hospital. The interrogator asked the same questions about her son,
Tamer. He was a nurse training at al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital. The
interrogator then asked about another relative, Alaa Abu Qamar, and his
relationship to Dr. <a href="https://mondoweiss.net/2026/01/israel-has-detained-dr-hussam-abu-safiya-without-charges-for-a-year-why-has-the-new-york-times-refused-to-cover-his-case/">Hussam Abu Safiya</a>. She said they were colleagues who worked together.</p>
<p>The interrogation lasted more than an hour and a half. Questions were
not asked consecutively; instead, a question would be posed, followed
by 10 minutes of repeating the same question to elicit more answers.
When the interrogation ended, she was handed over to the Red Crescent,
taken to a bus, and then transported into Gaza.</p>
<p>The interrogators offered returnees to expedite their emmigration
from Gaza alongside their families. Among the questions posed was why
had Qamar returned in the first place. \u201cIf we secure you a life, a home,
and a salary outside Gaza, would you leave?\u201d </p>
<p>Abu Qamar said she answered in the affirmative. \u201cIf you provide me
with a dignified life \u2014 a home and a salary for my children for life,
and for my husband \u2014 I would leave,\u201d she said.</p>
<p>In other cases, interrogators made different offers to returnees,
including attempting to recruit them as informants. \u201cThey asked me to
tell them what happens around me, what I see, and to do what they ask,\u201d
Sabah al-Rakab says.</p>
<p>\u201cAll of the questions revolved around why we wanted to return to
Gaza. He told me Gaza has no life, that it\u2019s completely destroyed and
there\u2019s nothing worth returning to. \u2018Why do you want to go back?\u2019 he\u2019d
say. And I would tell him: \u2018I want to go to my family, to see my
children and grandchildren. I want to see my family again.\u2019\u201d The
interrogator then interjected to say that her husband was not in Gaza,
but Oman. \u201cHe said, \u2018I will send you to your husband in Oman. I will
give you what you need and help reunite you with your children there. I
will bring them and help them travel to Oman\u2014on the condition that you
never return to Gaza and that you turn back immediately.\u2019\u201d </p>
<p>Sabah refused, saying Gaza is her homeland. She added that she had
lived in Egypt for more than a year and never felt comfortable or safe,
and that she would only feel that way in Gaza.</p>
<img width="494" height="339" src="https://mondoweiss.net/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/250226_Khan_Younis_TM_0012-1024x702.jpg" alt="A group of Palestinians arrived at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis after arriving Gaza through the Rafah border crossing, February 24, 2026. (Photo: Tariq Mohammad/APA Images)" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img" style="margin-right: 25px;">A
group of Palestinians arrived at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis after
arriving Gaza through the Rafah border crossing, February 24, 2026.
(Photo: Tariq Mohammad/APA Images)
<h2><strong>Testimony of beatings, torture, and degrading treatment</strong></h2>
<p>Travelers also share how interrogations used insults, foul language,
and verbal and physical abuse, banging on the table over and over and
calling them liars. </p>
<p>Over the course of an hour and 40 minutes, Sabah al-Rakab was
subjected to \u201cintense pressure\u201d by two interrogators she could neither
see nor identify. During the interrogation, the two played contrasting
roles: one acted kindly, promising help, family reunification, housing, a
salary, and a suitable life outside Gaza if she agreed to leave and
never return; the other slammed the table, shouted, accused her of
lying, and hurled insults she refused to repeat due to their nature.</p>
<p>When al-Rakab denied their offer to leave Gaza and never come back,
the two interrogators went back to hurling insults. She says she had
been wearing a woolen shawl to protect herself from the cold, but that
they took it from her. As she grew cold and began to cry, she told them
she was sick and needed warmth. Instead of returning the shawl, they
sprayed water on her back.</p>
<p>Another traveler, Taghreed Marouf, says that from 3 a.m. to 9 a.m.,
she was made to sit on a steel chair, hands cuffed and eyes blindfolded.
Her feet were tied to the chair. They were asking about her husband,
who serves as a policeman in the Hamas-run civilian branch of government
in Gaza. </p>
<p>\u201cThey did not believe that he was a policeman. They kept insisting
that he is a member of the Qassam Brigades,\u201d she says. \u201cI kept telling
the interrogator that he isn\u2019t affiliated with al-Qassam, and that he is
only working as a civilian policeman to feed his family and has nothing
to do with any military activity.\u201d </p>
<p>Marouf says the interrogator then hit her with the butt of his rifle.</p>
<p>During the interrogation, they asked Marouf to provide information
about another individual, but she denied any knowledge of the details
they sought. After that, she says, they stripped her of her winter
jacket and left her to sit in the cold for a few more hours. </p>
<p>\u201cThe interrogators asked me where I had surgery. I told him on my
hip. He told me to turn my body so he can see. When I did, and he saw
where they had operated on me, he hit me there with his rifle. He kept
kicking me in the same spot. I fell down and lost consciousness. When I
next opened my eyes, I was in a hospital in Gaza.\u201d</p>
<img width="494" height="335" src="https://mondoweiss.net/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/250226_Khan_Younis_TM_002-1024x694.jpg" alt="A group of Palestinians arrived at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis after arriving Gaza through the Rafah border crossing, February 22, 2026. (Photo: Tariq Mohammad/APA Images)" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img" style="margin-right: 25px;">A
group of Palestinians arrived at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis after
arriving Gaza through the Rafah border crossing, February 22, 2026.
(Photo: Tariq Mohammad/APA Images)
<h2><strong>\u2018Homeland is like the soul\u2019</strong></h2>
<p>Another traveler, Routana al-Rakab, was offered the chance to reunite
with her family and children at the border before they all left
together. She refused. They then offered to provide her with a place to
live away from the rubble. She refused again, insisting that all she
wanted was to return to Gaza. At that moment, the officer\u2019s tone
shifted, his \u201cgenerosity\u201d turning into rage. He began slamming his hands
on the table, raising his voice, and threatening to deprive her of her
children, saying she would never see them again.</p>
<p>\u201cHe said that \u2018Gaza is ours \u2014 if not today, then in twenty years, in
thirty years. We own Gaza now. Not a single Palestinian will remain. You
will all leave, and it will belong to us,\u2019\u201d al-Rakab recounts. </p>
<p>Most travelers interviewed by <em>Mondoweiss</em> said they would not
accept the Israeli offer to be relocated. Most of them cited their need
to be with family. \u201cMy family, my land, my home, my memories \u2014
everything I know and love can only be found in Gaza,\u201d al-Rakab says. \u201cI
will never choose to leave without returning. It\u2019s my homeland.
Homeland is like the soul, it\u2019s irreplaceable.\u201d </p>
<p>\u201cI lived in an occupation-free country,\u201d she continues. \u201cIt\u2019s really
amazing to breathe freedom, but if it\u2019s not in our homeland, then it\u2019s
not our freedom.\u201d </p>
<p>Al-Rakab says that after over a year spent in Egypt, never felt safe
or happy, despite not wanting for anything. \u201cExile is a burden, and home
is a blessing,\u201d she explains. \u201cI choose Gaza every time.\u201d</p>
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