Dozens of Palestinians seek a safer life after the outbreak of war in the Gaza Strip. They try with whatever money they have available to find an escape to Egypt, but this is not easy. Before the war, Palestinians would wait for weeks or months to be allowed to enter Egypt. They paid a few hundred dollars to various companies that existed in order to travel within a few days. But now there is only one company the Palestinians can count on. The Egyptian company Hala which according to the Sky News report makes millions off the misery of the people of Gaza.

Normal cross-border travel has been suspended since the start of the war. So this company is now the only way for Palestinians without dual citizenship to leave Gaza. Before the warif one wanted to travel by choosing the Hala agency would pay almost 330 euros ($350) per person. Today for the same trip the cost amounts to 4,622 euros ($5,000)price 14 times higher.

A former agent who was involved in all this coordination to get someone to travel to Egyptsays to Sky News that he quit the industry because of Hala’s price increases. “I refuse to participate in the crime of these prices and extortion,” he says.

Officially, Egypt only allows foreign nationals and injured evacuees to leave. In recent weeks, however, the majority of those granted permission to leave Gaza did so through Hala (56%). On February 27, for example, 246 people were recorded as traveling through Hala, compared to 40 people recorded as medical evacuees and 123 foreign nationals.

Hala’s travel directory for that day, shown below, it included 48 children and 198 adults, six of whom were Egyptian citizens. This means that the company could have made $1,083,900 in just one day.

How Hala works

According to the Sky News investigation little is written about the company. It is not registered on Egypt’s Ministry of Antiquities and Tourism website, as Egyptian companies involved in cross-border travel are required to do. Its only online presence is two Facebook pages and it also has a Google form.

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All respondents said that payment had to be made in cash and no one was given a receipt.

They received only one ticket with their name on it, but no information about the amount paid. And although price lists are easily found on social media, none are officially provided by Hala.

Hala’s headquarters are located in the headquarters of its parent company, of the Organi Group, in the Nasr City area of ​​Cairo. “The whole building is heavily guarded,” a source who visited the office told Sky News. “It’s very fancy.”

Many sources reported that there were often hundreds or thousands of people queuing outside. A Hala employee told Sky News that the best way to sign up and pay for travel with the company is for a relative to go to their headquarters in Cairo. They can also pay by mobile money transfer, it says, which was not confirmed by Sky News. Once the money is handed over, passengers wait to hear if they have been accepted for travel.

Once their names are approved, customers receive a travel ticket and wait until their names appear on a travel list in order to travel.