THE treatment of Palestinians attempting to use the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt amounts to “collective punishment,” Hamas said today.

Palestinians are suffering “mistreatment, abuse and deliberate extortion” at the crossing, which was opened on Monday, the resistance group said, adding that such treatment “constitutes fascist behaviour and organised terrorism” and amounts to “collective punishment.”

Hamas said: “Painful field testimonies have revealed degrading practices, including the abduction of women from among the travellers, blindfolding them, subjecting them to lengthy interrogations with irrelevant questions, threatening some with their children and attempting to extort one of them into collaborating.

“This confirms that what is happening is not ‘crossing procedures’ but rather systematic violation aimed at instilling fear and deterring people from returning to their homes,” the group added.

The long-awaited reopening of the territory’s southern border crossing with Egypt was supposed to alleviate the punishing military siege of Gaza. 

But Israeli authorities have continued to enforce strict security restrictions and a complex bureaucratic process that allows only a small number of people to travel in either direction.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) confirmed that only five ​patients from Gaza had passed ‍through the Rafah crossing on Monday. 

Spokesman Christian Lindmeier said: “On February 2, WHO and partners supported the medical evacuation of five patients and seven companions to Egypt via the Rafah crossing.”

More than 20,000 patients are reportedly awaiting urgent evacuation from Gaza.

Mosab Nasser, head of healthcare NGO Fajr Global, said the planned number of evacuations of patients from Gaza through the Rafah crossing would be far from enough.

Many of those waiting to cross have critical injuries and illnesses and are in need of urgent healthcare abroad, he warned.

Mr Nasser said that people with blast injuries, cancer, chronic disease and many other patients could not be properly treated over the last two years because of Gaza’s decimated medical system.

“All of them were waiting for this moment to be evacuated for treatment because the local healthcare infrastructure in Gaza is completely destroyed,” he said, adding that evacuating dozens or even hundreds of patients would not “cut it” because of the huge numbers waiting.

Many Palestinians with severe war wounds don’t have time to wait for evacuation and healthcare, Mr Nasser said, pointing out that cancer patients in Gaza “are literally dying on a daily basis” for lack of proper treatment.

There was no immediate comment from Israeli authorities.