Tens of hundreds of Palestinians fleeing the war in Gaza arrived in Egypt throughout the final two years, clutching stamped visas, papers that supply shelter however little else. As they attempt to set up new routines of their new refuge, ensures of stability really feel like a distant hope.
“We watched in horror the conflict, destruction, and devastation that took over Gaza,” Nael Youssef Abzaanin, a 42-year-old Palestinian father of three boys, instructed Egyptian Streets, safely from his house in Cairo. “Nothing was spared, not even the bushes or stones.”
Abzaanin got here to Egypt in late September 2023 together with his son, Youssef, for a follow-up on the again surgical procedure Youssef had a yr earlier. As Gaza was bombarded and demolished, he considered his two different sons and spouse again in Gaza, craving to reconnect with them. In the meantime, his family members in Egypt organized an house for him and his son.
“As the times dragged on, the state of affairs worsened and my worries and fears grew,” he shared. “The sound of bombing by no means stopped, and my household in Gaza couldn’t get pleasure from a single peaceable evening’s sleep.”
To this present day, Abzaanin stays in Egypt together with his son, reduce off from his household, with no technique of communication, whereas they continue to be caught amid conflict, dwelling in worry, starvation, and siege.
Issues bought much more dire for Abzaanin when financial transfers stopped as a result of destruction of banks and the extreme scarcity of cash inside Gaza.
Arriving totally on short-term vacationer visas, Palestinians in Egypt receive 45-day vacationer visas that bar them from searching for residency, opening financial institution accounts, or making use of for work or faculty. For many in Egypt, permits that lengthy since expired ban them from making use of for visas to different international locations.
“We are able to’t obtain any cash transfers from overseas until now we have residency standing,” Abzaanin mentioned, noting that he doesn’t have a allow. “Even cellphone traces get reduce off after six months in case you don’t have a allow, which makes every day life even tougher.”
Discovering a job is “practically not possible,” he shared. Resulting from authorized complexities, Abzaanin can’t get employed or a enterprise license to function a small enterprise.
The Egyptian job market, already strained by inflation of 11.7 p.c in September 2025, gives limited opportunities for overseas employees. Many Palestinians resort to casual labor, corresponding to tutoring, translation, or on-line freelance work, to maintain their households, usually at wages beneath the nationwide common.
Equally, Youssef, a 15-year-old, couldn’t enroll at school. Egyptian authorities demand residency paperwork earlier than youngsters can enter public faculties, which is a situation many refugee and asylum-seeking Palestinian, Syrian, and Sudanese households can’t meet, according to a diplomatic supply in Egypt.
Missing a sound allow, many youngsters lag behind their Egyptian friends academically and are compelled to turn to remote learning choices supplied by the Palestinian Ministry of Schooling or to casual residence education, unable to entry academic sources absolutely.
With the help of the Palestinian embassy in Egypt and in partnership with the Worldwide Islamic College of Science, Youssef enrolled within the World Islamic Sciences & Schooling College (WISE) College Platform, a distant learning program launched in November 2024 to help Palestinian college students.
“We’re right here in Egypt, our second homeland and the land of dignity and honor,” Abzaanin shared, noting that whereas the Egyptian individuals deal with them as brothers, “with love, honesty, belief, and openness to cultural variations,” the authorized dealings are troublesome for everybody.
“We stay with no work, no revenue, no secure supply of livelihood or prospects,” he mentioned.
Abzaanin’s expertise is one among many, echoed by different displaced Palestinians who proceed to face comparable hardships.
Qasem Raed Al-Kafarnah, a 27-year-old Palestinian man, arrived on 9 October 2023 alone. Six months after he set foot in Egypt, his sister and her youngsters, aged between two to fifteen, joined him. Since then, he has married a Palestinian girl in Egypt, but his life stays unstable.
“I nonetheless haven’t discovered a job,” Al-Kafarnah instructed Egyptian Streets, noting that he has no residency allow to use for formal work. “Those obtainable simply don’t pay sufficient.”
Whereas organizations such because the United Nations Reduction and Works Company for Palestine Refugees within the Close to East (UNRWA) and the Egyptian Pink Crescent supply some assist to Palestinian households in Egypt, primarily with medical care, meals, and emotional help, restricted funding and strict authorized guidelines have kept that assist small and uneven.
These challenges prolong to his nieces and nephews, whose training has additionally been disrupted. They initially studied on-line with UNRWA, however now they’re enrolled at Dawood College, run by the Al-Falah Benevolent Society, a Palestinian non-governmental group.
“The kids haven’t but tailored to life in Egypt and want to return residence,” Al-Kafarnah mentioned, noting that life in Egypt looks like a brief chapter of their story.
Mirroring his sentiment is Mai Khader Sammour, a 35-year-old Palestinian girl and English trainer. Whereas she appreciates Egyptians’ kindness and hospitality, her coronary heart longs for Palestine.
She arrived in Egypt in February 2025 along with her son, Moatasem, who suffers from an autoimmune illness, by way of a medical referral beneath the World Well being Group (WHO). Earlier than leaving Gaza, Mai had entrusted her three daughters and son to their father. After her husband was killed, the kids discovered refuge with their grandmother.
Now dwelling in Egypt, Sammour described her life as pretty comfy, surrounded by heat, love, and respect from the Egyptian individuals. But, beneath that sense of security lies a quiet battle. She has not but utilized for residency, and her makes an attempt to seek out work have been, in her phrases, “a really dangerous expertise.”
Sammour confronted difficulties attempting to enroll her son at school, a course of weighed down by paperwork, prices, and the emotional toll of displacement. With no family members or neighborhood close by, she and Moatasem navigate every day life on their very own.
“My son has not tailored to life in Egypt but,” she mentioned. By three weekly physician visits and the unfamiliar rhythm of Cairo, Sammour does her greatest to make on a regular basis life really feel regular, although her coronary heart stays divided between her little one beside her and the 4 ready for her in Gaza.
As of January this yr, Palestinian households searching for to enter Egypt have been required to pay around USD 1,000 (EGP 47,558) for safety clearance—a value she can’t pay for her different youngsters.
Whereas practically 115,000 Palestinians fled to Egypt because the begin of the conflict, the Palestinian embassy in Egypt estimates, Palestinian households present resilience and hope.
Egypt stays a brief refuge, promising security and a base from which to in the future return residence. Nevertheless, with out extra accessible pathways to training and employment, the challenges of displacement proceed to weigh closely on their futures.
“I want Egyptians would contemplate the monetary, psychological, and social circumstances the Palestinian persons are going by way of,” Sammour instructed Egyptian Streets, hoping there could be extra job and academic alternatives for Palestinians.
“We stay by way of sophisticated and troublesome circumstances, however we at all times say, ‘Reward be to God in all conditions. If God is with us, who will be in opposition to us?’” Abzaanin mentioned.