‘Nowhere is safe’: crowds at Egyptian border seek to escape Gaza

As they fled from Israel’s shelling of the Gaza Strip, many Palestinians and foreign nationals gathered at the Rafah border crossing on Monday hoping to be allowed into Egypt. There has been a call for a humanitarian ceasefire in order to allow safe passage for aid and those who want to make it out of Gaza.

The Egyptian foreign minister, Sameh Shoukry, said on Monday that the Israeli government had yet to take a stance that allowed the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip to open, saying Egypt had aimed to keep the crossing open.

Despite consistent calls to open the crossing, some Arab leaders are concerned about a mass displacement of Palestinians resembling an expulsion that took place in 1948.