At the Kerem Shalom crossing, dozens of Gazans interviewed in a special News 14 report described life in the strip as so devastated that many would leave immediately if the crossings opened. The piece says the weekly flow of people exiting Gaza is small but steady, and that many are not just fleeing the war, but seeking a life elsewhere after what they see as the collapse of any future in the enclave.
Heba, a resident of Gaza City, said her family waited seven or eight months for permission to leave. “We would have been destroyed if we had not traveled,” she said, adding that they had been waiting “on coals” for approval. She described summer heat, life in tents and tarps, and filth, saying rats and mice had become part of daily life. She left with her husband and children because, she said, “the children suffered very much in the war,” and there are no homes left to return to.
Asked what would happen if all crossings opened, Heba replied that most people would go. “Most people will travel. Everyone will choose to travel,” she said, arguing that many have no home and no reason to stay. Another evacuee, Muhammad, a young educated man from Gaza City, said in English that it is “unhuman” to live there now and that it feels like living in 1933 while the outside world is in 2026. He said Gaza lacks resources and a supportive environment, and he hoped other students would get the same chance to leave.
The report says departures are taking place under an Israeli framework that sends Gazans to third countries including the Netherlands, Slovakia, Switzerland, Jordan and Canada. It also cites Defense Minister Israel Katz, who recently said, “The solution in Gaza is only emigration, there is no other solution in the end.” According to the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, about 80% of respondents to a Facebook poll preferred leaving for a third country over infrastructure improvements. Since the war began, about 50,000 people, roughly 3% of Gaza’s population, have left the strip.
