Gazans Living In Egypt

by Moh Telbani

My family and I were forced to leave our home in the city of Gaza because of the war that started on October 7, 2023. We have been in Egypt since April 27, 2024. We are facing hardship here, but nothing in comparison with our neighbors, friends, and family members who remain in Gaza.

Rent here in Egypt is very high for Palestinians in our position, especially in Giza. Monthly rent for an apartment like the one we’re living in used to be 4,000 Egyptian pounds (approximately 83 USD), but has now more than doubled, to about 10,000 Egyptian pounds—depending on your nationality. Landlords will ask prospective tenants about their nationality before naming a price; if you are Egyptian they won’t raise the rent, but if you are, for example, a Palestinian or Sudanese person escaping war, the rent can suddenly double. The Egyptian government has so far failed to address this crisis.

An equally pressing problem is that Palestinians are not officially allowed to work in Egypt; those who can find work under the table are subject to exploitation and rock-bottom wages insufficient even to pay rent. Palestinians are also forbidden to send their kids to school in Egypt, with the exception of very expensive private schools, plus extra tutoring for making sure they can stream into the new system of schooling.

Again, the comparison with the situation of children still in Gaza is a painful one. Schools there have been closed since October 7, leaving Palestinian children without an entire year of formal schooling. The UN reports that Israel has bombed schools more than 200 times and completely destroyed 53 schools, a shocking number in an area of just 140 square miles. 

Aid groups are hopeful that schools in Gaza can reopen by September. But even if there’s a ceasefire, it could take years for schools to rebuild. The AP reports that it took volunteer teachers two months to clear just one schoolroom in Deir al-Balah in the south of Gaza, and getting the simplest supplies to aid groups, like stationery and soccer balls, can take months.

Games and casual instruction such as aid groups can offer are no substitute for real schooling, but the bigger problem is that the displaced and orphaned children of this war have suffered trauma that has to heal before they can ever return to a normal day at school.

I’m very relieved to be with my family in Egypt, facing the relatively trivial challenges of everyday life in a new country. For example we all speak Arabic, but Egyptians speak very quickly, and have their own words for many different things. Egyptian food is very different from what we are used to, and that is an adjustment for the kids, though there are very good Syrian restaurants offering familiar foods such as  falafel, hummus, and shawarma; for me and my wife, we are okay with any kind of food after what we experienced in the war just a few months ago.

The Egyptian community is more open-minded than in Gaza, especially when it comes to women. Women are freer here. You’d never see a woman out alone in the street in Gaza late at night. In Egypt, women take more responsibility for their families, often taking jobs to help provide for a family’s expenses. 

The hardest thing for me to get used to is the weather. It is very hot here, most of the time it is more than 43℃ (109℉) which makes it very taxing to get outside and do whatever you need to do. People here prefer to go out at night and sleep all day long because of the heat. I miss the weather of Gaza which was very nice, at its peak no more than 37℃ (98℉) . 

At the end of the day, all I have to say is that Egyptians are very kind people. They love each other and they also respect each other. Most of them stand with our cause and the Palestinian cause, and try to help us with all they have. They too pray for my people, and hope the war in Gaza stops.