By Nidal al-Mughrabi and Mahmoud Issa
CAIRO/GAZA, Feb 3 (Reuters) - Palestinian women among the few people let back into Gaza after Israel's delayed reopening of the Rafah crossing under last year's ceasefire have described being blindfolded, handcuffed and interrogated by Israeli forces as they tried to get home.
Their journey from Egypt on Monday through the frontier post and across the "yellow line" zone controlled by Israel and an allied Palestinian militia group, involved lengthy delays and the confiscation
of gifts including toys, one of the women said.
"It was a journey of horror, humiliation and oppression," said 56-year-old Huda Abu Abed by phone from the tent her family is living in at Khan Younis in southern Gaza.
Her account was supported by that of another woman Reuters interviewed, and by comments from a third woman interviewed on Arab television.
In response to a Reuters request for comment, Israel's military denied its forces had acted inappropriately or mistreated Palestinians crossing into Gaza, without addressing the specific allegations made by the two women interviewed.
INTERROGATION
About 50 Palestinians had been expected to enter the enclave on Monday but by nightfall only three women and nine children had been let through, Palestinian and Egyptian sources said, with another 38 stuck waiting to clear security.
Of the 50 people waiting to leave Gaza, mostly for medical treatment, only five patients with seven relatives escorting them managed to cross into Egypt on Monday.
Abu Abed said the returnees, who were restricted to a single suitcase each, first encountered problems at the crossing where European border monitors confiscated toys they were taking home as gifts, she said.
She spent a year in Egypt for heart treatment but returned before it was finished because she missed her family. An adult daughter had also travelled to Egypt for medical treatment. An adult son was killed in December 2024 and she was not able to say goodbye to him, she said. Two other children are in Gaza.
Once through the crossing and on the Gaza side of the border, the 12 returnees boarded a bus for their journey through the Israeli-controlled zone and across the "yellow line" demarcating Israeli and Hamas-held zones.
A second woman, Sabah al-Raqeb, 41, said the bus, escorted by two four-wheel-drive vehicles, was stopped at a checkpoint manned by Israel-backed Palestinian gunmen who identified themselves as belonging to the Popular Forces, commonly known as the Abu Shabab militia.
The women's family names were read out over a loudspeaker and each was led by two men and a woman from Abu Shabab militia to a security point where Israeli forces were waiting. They were then blindfolded and handcuffed, she and Abu Abed said.
They were asked about their knowledge of Hamas, about the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel that triggered the war, and other issues relating to militancy, the two women said. The Palestinian anti-Hamas gunmen also said they could remain in the Israeli-held zone, Raqeb said.
"The officer asked me why I came back to Gaza. He said it was destroyed. I told him I came back for my children and family," said Raqeb, who has returned to her seven children living in a tent after leaving Gaza two years ago for what she had expected to be a short trip for medical treatment.
Abu Abed said the questioning lasted more than two hours.
In a statement denying any wrongdoing, Israel's military said there were no known incidents of inappropriate conduct, mistreatment, apprehensions or confiscation of property by the Israeli security establishment.
It said there was an "identification and screening process at the 'Regavim' screening facility, which is managed by the security establishment in an area under (Israeli military) control." It said that process followed screening by European personnel as part of a mechanism agreed upon by all parties.
ARMED MILITIA
The Rafah crossing, the sole route in or out for nearly all Gaza's more than 2 million inhabitants, has been shut for most of the war. It was meant to be reopened in the first phase of the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas agreed in October.
Rafah, a city of a quarter of a million people, was almost entirely depopulated during the war as Israel told all residents to leave before conducting extensive demolitions that have left it a wasteland of rubble.
The city lies in a security cordon retained by Israel after its troops pulled back to the yellow line in October, and where the Popular Forces are also operating.
Since the forces' leader, Yasser Abu Shabab, was killed last year they have been led by his deputy, Ghassan Dahine. "The Fifth Unit under my command will play an important security role regarding entry and exit through the Rafah crossing," Israel's Ynet news website quoted Dahine as saying.
Some 20,000 Gazans are hoping to leave for treatment abroad. Despite the slow reopening, many of them said the step brought relief. On Tuesday, 50 Palestinians were expected to cross into Gaza from Egypt, according to an Egyptian source.
(Additional reporting by Rami Ayyub in Jerusalem, Editing by Angus McDowall and Timothy Heritage)
