Gaza-West Bank split divides lovers

KHAN YUNIS, Gaza Strip — Her hair is already starting to turn gray as she nears her 33rd birthday. Sorrow fills Dalia Sharab's eyes. She has been waiting in the Gaza Strip for over three years to see and marry her fiance Rashed al-Fadda, 35, who lives in the West Bank city of Nablus.

When they first met in 2011 at a youth conference in Jordan, Rashed and Dalia never suspected they would have to suffer like this and wait years to see each other again. They fell in love and Rashed asked her relatives in Jordan for her hand in marriage. Her family in Gaza discussed the proposal and announced their consent after a few months, and the couple were officially engaged on Jan. 24, 2012, in the presence of Rashed and his father, who were both visiting Gaza for the first time. They only stayed for four days, and following the engagement Dalia has been trying to see her fiance in Nablus. She submitted in February 2012 a form to the Civil Affairs Ministry, which in turn submitted it to the Israeli authorities. She then filed another request in 2013, and others after that. In total, she has filed five requests to the ministry in Gaza. The replies were always the same: She was either told that she is too young or that the reasons for her travel request are not convincing.

According to human rights organizations, Israel prohibits Palestinians from the occupied territories from entering the State of Israel without a special form. Since 2000, Israel has been withholding entry permits to its territories, issuing them only to exceptional applicants such as medical patients, traders, personnel of international organizations, foreigners and VIPs using the Erez crossing.

Al-Monitor met with Dalia on Jan. 25 in her office at an online marketing company in Gaza City. She said, “When we first met, everything was nice and easy. I went to the West Bank, he came with his father to Gaza, we spent beautiful days together and we never thought that the hardest part was yet to come.”