Each nook and nook of Rawan Alkatari’s residence in Aalst, a metropolis in Belgium, is stuffed with photos that remind her of her household in Gaza.
“Individuals who come to go to my residence say it’s stunning. However I’ll see it as stunning when it’s stuffed with the sound of my youngsters,” she mentioned.
The 30-year-old got here to Belgium shortly earlier than Israel’s warfare on Gaza started in October 2023, having been granted asylum.
However her husband Osama and three youngsters – Lujayn, Lama and Omar, aged 14, 12 and eight, respectively – have been unable to hitch her, regardless of Belgium having permitted their household reunification visas.
“My husband and kids received their household reunification visas permitted [by Belgium] on October 1, 2024, however stay caught in Gaza. Their visas additionally expire in October this yr,” she informed Al Jazeera.
“Proper now, my household’s paperwork are on the Belgian embassy in Cairo in Egypt. Belgium says it has submitted their names for evacuation and is awaiting Israeli approval, whereas Israel says it hasn’t acquired something. So, who’s accountable? I truthfully don’t know,” she mentioned.
Alkatari is being supported by an Israel-based organisation, which has contacted COGAT, the Israeli military’s assist coordination company, relating to her case. COGAT informed the group in June {that a} request for her household’s evacuation had not been acquired, she mentioned, referring to emails seen by Al Jazeera.
Alkatari’s residence in Gaza Metropolis has been destroyed. Her household has been displaced greater than 4 occasions. They at present dwell in an overcrowded encampment in al-Mawasi in Gaza’s Khan Younis. Israel had designated al-Mawasi as a humanitarian protected zone in December 2023, however has repeatedly attacked the world since then.
“Every single day, bombs fall round their tents, and so they watch individuals die. They’re additionally dwelling in a depressing tent with not sufficient meals, no medicines and no protected loos,” she mentioned, including that fever, hepatitis, and pores and skin illnesses are rampant within the camp. Rodents, weasels, and snakes crawl round as individuals sleep, she mentioned.
In Belgium, guilt-stricken and anxious about her household’s plight, she struggles to eat or drink.
“My youngsters beg me to eat. I went out as soon as to get one thing to eat. I regarded on the grocery store and thought, ‘How am I going to eat once they’re hungry?’ My youngsters not look the identical after I converse to them over video calls. Their faces are pale and yellow from malnutrition. My husband has additionally aged a lot. His hair and beard have turned fully white,” she mentioned.
Why are evacuations being delayed?
The European Union permits asylum seekers who’ve been granted worldwide safety in any member state to carry their partner, youngsters and sure different members of the family underneath the bloc’s Household Reunification Directive.
In Belgium, one in 4 visas got to members of a refugee’s household final yr, native broadcaster VRT NWS reported in January. Refugee household reunification visas elevated to five,714 in 2024 from 3,700 in 2023.
However for refugees from Gaza, Belgium can “solely present consular help and register on an evacuation checklist Belgians and foreigners who’ve a refugee standing in Belgium, in addition to the members of their nuclear household”, in response to the Immigration Division.
Alkatari isn’t satisfied.
“Some households I do know have additionally left for different nations by way of the Kerem Shalom [crossing] in Israel. So there are alternatives, however there appears to be a transparent failure to take care of us,” she mentioned, including that the instances she has heard of are households with Belgian visas and a few who’ve reached different European nations on medical evacuations.
Close by, 37 individuals arrived in France on July 11; the French Overseas Ministry mentioned that since January 2025, 292 individuals from Gaza have been evacuated to the nation that borders Belgium.
In early June, in an effort to place strain on Belgian authorities, Alkatari went on a three-week starvation strike protest exterior Belgium’s Overseas Ministry in Brussels.
A number of hundred Palestinian households in Gaza ready to be evacuated to Belgium are caught in an analogous state of affairs, in response to native media stories.
In June, a gaggle of attorneys condemned the delay in an open letter printed by the Belgian day by day La Libre Belgique, addressed to Prime Minister Bart De Wever and Overseas Minister Maxime Prevot.
“The Belgian authorities continues in reality to do the whole lot in its energy to stop males, girls and kids caught within the hell of Gaza from having the ability to be part of their members of the family in Belgium,” they mentioned.
Belgium rejects the accusations.
Belgium has evacuated greater than 500 individuals from Gaza, because the warfare started, by way of the Rafah border crossing bordering Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, a Overseas Ministry spokesperson mentioned. This group contains Belgian residents and Palestinians with Belgian refugee standing and their lawful companions and kids.
“These evacuations needed to be halted in Could 2024, when the Rafah border crossing was closed. It was not till March 2025 that evacuation operations may resume, this time by means of the border put up of Kerem Shalom and Jordan. Since then, round 40 individuals have been evacuated,” the spokesperson informed Al Jazeera.
Israel closed the Rafah border crossing in Could 2024, claiming that it was getting used for “terrorist functions”. In January this yr, the crossing was opened for medical evacuations.
Belgium organised medical evacuations in July and December final yr as a part of a pan-European humanitarian mission, in coordination with the World Well being Group. The sufferers and caretakers had been both evacuated from Egypt or instantly from Gaza.
In October 2024, Belgium’s international minister mentioned the foundations had modified and solely Belgians or their core members of the family could be eligible for evacuation. However this restriction ended final month, “and preparations started for the resumption of evacuations that had been suspended in Could 2024”, the spokesperson added, giving no additional particulars.
Requested if Israel is delaying evacuations, the spokesperson mentioned: “Quite a lot of components proceed to trigger delays, however efforts are ongoing to search out options, in shut cooperation with all related authorities.”
Al Jazeera contacted COGAT for remark however didn’t obtain a response on the time of publishing.
Bram Frouws, director of the Geneva-based Combined Migration Centre, informed Al Jazeera that European nations may create humanitarian channels, concern laissez-passer or emergency visas, and loosen the documentation necessities.
“It’s not not possible, most nations have managed to get Palestinian folks that maintain twin citizenship of their nations out of Gaza, so with political will, there are potentialities,” he mentioned.
“However I don’t assume there’s a lot of that political will within the present political local weather in most European nations.”