Meral, a pseudonym, 28, from the Gaza Strip, has traveled the world and returned to her hometown in Gaza. But her account of the trip she took last week and related to Al-Monitor was so traumatic that it might be the last one she attempts to take out of Gaza.

A freelance journalist who works with leading global media outlets, Meral was invited to a media conference in the Lebanese capital, Beirut. The trip out of Gaza was tricky, she said. One needs to organize a trip out of the Gaza Strip weeks in advance. Normally, the Rafah border crossing — still controlled by Hamas — has two days reserved for students and two days for those wishing to perform hajj or umrah in Saudi Arabia. Business and leisure trips simply do not have their own day at the border, so these trips require careful planning ahead of time.

Meral knew that she needed a visa to enter Lebanon, but when she was notified that she could leave on Oct. 1, she decided to leave then in the hope that the visa to Lebanon, applied for long ago, would arrive within the days she would be waiting in Cairo. Had she turned down the Gazan government’s offer to leave on Oct. 1, it would have been uncertain when she would have been able to leave next. This could have taken weeks, and she would have certainly missed attending the conference on journalism and social media sponsored by Canal France International (CFI) and the Samir Kassir Foundation.

The trip began at 5 a.m. on Oct. 1. Meral was at the Rafah border crossing long before the official opening time of 7:30 a.m. But it was only by 10 a.m. that she managed to leave the Palestinian side on the first bus and arrive at the Egyptian side of the crossing. When her passport was finally checked, she was told to wait. By noon, she was told she was not allowed entry into Egypt. Her sister, Rania, who wanted to go to the US Embassy in Cairo, was told she could leave and that she would be allowed 72 hours in Cairo. Meral decided to appeal and pleaded with the Egyptian officials, a representative of the Palestinian Embassy to Egypt and a Hamas official to intervene, but with little success. Meral was eventually allowed to talk to an Egyptian officer who scoffed at the invitation letter from the Lebanese foundation. He agreed to let her travel to Cairo International Airport on what is referred to as “tarheel,” literally translated as "deportation." Having heard so many stories about people being stuck at the airport for days, Meral rejected the offer and tried another avenue.