Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has affirmed his rejection of the transfer plan proposed by Israel, with his country closing the borders to besieged Gazans. However, an investigation conducted by OCCRP & Saheeh Masr and published by Daraj reveals the exploitation Gazans are facing in the process of obtaining security coordination managed by Hala Travel in Egypt, which is owned by Ibrahim Al-Arajani, a close companion of the Egyptian army. The company receives bribes from Gazans (who do not hold Egyptian citizenship) amounting to $5,000 per individual to cross into Egypt.
The phenomenon of leaving the sector through Hala Travel reveals somewhat of a small-scale transfer situation and an application of the voluntary transfer scenario that Israel is rumored to be pushing for. Gazans pay bribes to entities in Egypt in exchange for having their names placed on the Rafah crossing lists.
Hala Travel is benefitting from Gazans’ desire for safety, collecting their money in exchange for safe passage. Through its investigation, Daraj accessed figures released by Hala Travel, a company aimed at performing security coordination and collecting data pertaining to the Rafah crossing, which indicate that the company collected $180 million from 36,000 travelers over a four month period.
This amount was revealed through calculating the daily number of departures from the Rafah crossing towards Egypt over the last four months and looking at the lists of names published by Hala Travel on their social media platforms. The latter showed that each person paid $5,000 to the company at its headquarters in 6th of October city.
Bribery for Survival
Through Facebook, Mohammed Massoud offered to sell his Fiat, which he purchased before the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip. He was doing so to collect bribe money for the Egyptian company Hala Consultancy and Tourism Services, also known as Hala Travel, to have his name included on the travel lists at the Rafah crossing, facilitating his family’s travel outside the sector.
Massoud managed to sell his car for $9,000, although he bought it for $17,000. He did so out of necessity for the money to pay to the Egyptian company based in 6th of October city.
Massoud paid a total $20,000 to Hala Travel in Egypt, sending one of his relatives to the company’s headquarters in exchange for including his family of four in the travel list through the Rafah crossing.
Massoud is one of thousands of Gazans who paid $5,000 to the Egyptian company and whose names are subsequently published on a list by Hala Travel on their social media platforms.
The company provided Massoud’s relative with a stamped receipt, as a payment confirmation. The report’s author was also able to review and confirm this document as well.
Since the start of the ongoing Israeli war on the Gaza Strip on October 7, thousands of Palestinians have resorted to paying what is known as “coordination” fees to exit through the Rafah border crossing.
The “Coordination” scheme is an exploitation of those desiring to travel, as responsible parties receive money in exchange for facilitating travels through the Rafah border crossing. This is done by communicating with influential people on the Egyptian side of the crossing, allowing Hala Travel to send travelers’ names to the Palestinian side, and permitting these travelers to journey across the border.
The list is published without any headers or stamps associating it to any Egyptian party, and it only contains the names of travelers, without any marks indicating that it comes from the Egyptian side.
On a Gazan car market page on Facebook, Mohammed Younis posted a picture of his Jeep for sale in Rafah city, south of the Gaza Strip, with a note stating “for sale for traveling purposes.”
Younis acknowledged that selling his car would result in a significant financial loss, but he was forced to do so due to his urgent need for thousands of dollars to have his name included in the Egyptian Hala Travel list.
“I bought this car for $30,000, and now I’m receiving offers from buyers for $18,000 and $17,000. I am waiting for the highest offer to sell it and transfer the amount to the Egyptian company in Egypt,” said Younis.
Younis explained that travel through the Rafah crossing is only possible by paying $5,000 per each to Hala Travel. Without this, no one can leave, except for the wounded, their companions, and foreign delegations.
Like Younis and Massoud, Mohammed Aweideh was forced to sell his Nissan after having it on sale for several days via Facebook.
Aweideh lost $8,000 through selling his car due to the decline in car prices in the Gaza Strip and people’s fear of acquiring them due to the ongoing Israeli war and the possibility of their cars being bombed and destroyed, like thousands of other cars.
“I sold my cars at a huge loss, but I want to leave Gaza because there is no life here, and there is no safe place to resort to. Therefore, traveling was the ultimate decision. I considered leaving with my family and saving them from this war as a heroic and noble decision for a person protecting his family from death.”
Aweideh succeeded in placing his children’s names on the Rafah crossing for travel, but through a separate route than Hala Travel, using the Egyptian Foreign Ministry’s lists.
He explained that the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs puts out a list everyday for Palestinians holding Egyptian citizenship through the Rafah crossing. Palestinians pay $8,500 per family, excluding the patriarch.
He pointed out that traveling through the Egyptian Foreign Ministry’s list is better than Hala Travel because it is much cheaper and faster. One does not have to wait for weeks for the travel list to be published, but the downside is that only the mother and children under 14 are allowed to leave through the list, as the patriarch is excluded from this journey.
Who’s Behind Hala Travel?
Hala Travel is not registered on the Ministry of Antiquities and Tourism website, although Egyptian law requires Egyptian companies operating in border travel to do so.
Hala Travel is one of eight companies operating under Egyptian businessman Ibrahim Al-Arajani’s group, which also includes Egypt Sinai, a joint project with the industrial group affiliated with the Ministry of Defense and the National Service Projects Organization (NSPO).
In a 2014 interview with Egyptian media outlet Al-Youm Al-Sabe’, Al-Arajani said that the NSPO owns 51 percent of the company’s shares, in partnership with two companies owned by the General Intelligence Service.
Al-Arajani added: “As you can see, all state entities are present in this company. This gives us an advantage.”
In 2016, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi inaugurated the company’s new complex consisting of seven marble production factories.
Major Corruption
Former Deputy Minister of Interior in the Gaza Strip, Kamel Abu Madi, previously confirmed that the “coordination” lists are a major gateway for corruption on the Egyptian side because they do not work through official streams. The Egyptian side sends unmarked lists that do not have any header or stamp associated with any Egyptian party each time the crossing is opened.
In a statement to the Palestine newspaper, Abu Madi revealed that his ministry dealt with several individual cases of travelers who were deceived by tourism and travel offices supposedly dealing with “coordination” efforts, as the office owners received money from citizens without facilitating their travels.
He explained that Gazans resort to paying money for their travel because some of them are listed as security threats by the authorities (meaning that they are banned from traveling through the Rafah crossing), so they pay money to offices to facilitate their travels in cooperation with the Egyptian side.
