S’s application were repeatedly refused even though she met the criteria
March 11, 2015. S met her son who is incarcerated in Israel only twice during the first eight years of his sentence, due to persistent denials of her requests to exit Gaza. Only after Gisha intervened was S permitted to visit her son again, after not having seen him for a year Read More »

Your mother passed away? Please wait here
December 31, 2014. Samah’s mother passed away, and she spent the first day of mourning on a bench at the DCO. She received a permit to visit with her grieving family in Gaza only the next day. COGAT: “All the necessary conclusions were drawn”. Read More »

Received passports, but were compelled to leave their family
October 26, 2014. Two sisters born in Gaza to an Israeli mother are, by law, Israeli citizens themselves. Due to registration problems, they lived for years without any official documentation: neither Palestinian nor Israeli. Following Gisha’s intervention, they received Israeli passports but had to leave their home. Read More »

She wanted to stay a little longer with her father and got stranded in Gaza.
May 28, 2014. When Sara (not her real name) decided to spend more time with her father in the Gaza Strip, she didn’t know Rafah Crossing would close and that she would end up staying in Gaza for much longer than expected Read More »

Military changes procedure in order to justify its refusal to allow a British student to enter the Gaza Strip
February 25, 2014. A British student requested to travel to Gaza in order to complete his research. Since the existing procedure allowed him to enter, the military decided to change the procedure. Read More »

In Gaza a scholarship is worth more than just money
During the past months, Gisha received a deluge of inquiries from students stuck in Gaza as a result of restricted travel at the Rafah crossing. Here are the stories of two of these students. Read More »

Why were 18 human rights advocates from Gaza denied permits to attend a meeting in the West Bank?
Eighteen delegates from organizations that work in the Gaza Strip were invited to attend a UN-sponsored meeting in the West Bank but the army refused to let them travel. Who does this serve? It’s not clear. Read More »

Traveling out of Gaza isn’t easy, even if you’re just a kid who wants to play music
We tried to help 47 children from Gaza go to music summer camp in the West Bank, and found out that it wasn’t as simple as we thought it would be Read More »

Ms. Khalil’s courageous decision
Ms. Khalil faced a dilemma: stay in Gaza and never see her family in Israel again or enter Israel and risk not being able to return to her family in the Gaza Strip. She chose to fight. Read More »

Squeezing past the criteria: How Mr. Awad travelled between Gaza and the West Bank
Though Israel does not allow people to travel from Gaza to the West Bank for the purpose of running professional training seminars, as a result of Gisha’s efforts, Mr. Awad received an exit permit. More proof that the restrictive policy on paper isn’t necessarily relevant to the reality of how it’s implemented on the ground. Read More »

Following Gisha’s activities: The Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories begins publishing procedures and protocols on its website
The Freedom of Information Act stipulates that public authorities must publish the procedures and protocols that govern their operations. How is it, then, that there are more COGAT procedures and protocols on Gisha’s website than on COGAT’s own website? Take a peek into the Sisyphean battle it takes to get the authorities to obey a simple legal provision. Read More »