Are you going to Israel or Gaza?

RPS's  consultant has just got back from Israel and having been to Gaza as well, RPS is now offering the following advice.

Arriving at Tel Aviv airport, you can now request not to have your passport stamped, instead they will stamp a separate pice of card, that you must keep with you at all times and hand back in to customs on departing the country. Keep an eye out as they have been known to change direction with the stamp and stamp your passport at the last minute.

New airport procedures are in place and arrivials and customs are very efficient and quick when entering Israel, however when you come to leave, expect it to take longer.

Departure   -  Often customs will take laptops, I pads, smart phones, and any other electrical equipment, cameras etc into a small back office out of sight, they can be gone for up to half an hour, before they return your goods to you. 

You can only assume they have downloaded information from your devices into their systems, so with that in mind, clear down any unnecessary information from your computers, phones before you travel / or take in a new device with only work relating to the task in hand. Think about taking an old nokia phone with no data on it.

Crossing into Gaza

If you have permission to go into Gaza, you will go through rigerous checks at the Israeli boarder crossing; again at customs you can request not to have your passport stamped, but it is esential to keep the stamped card they give you for your later exit.

The border is only open certain times, and on your return back into Israel, it can take 2 - 3 hours to get through the checks....

They will search all your luggage and go through everything, even taking out plates from body armour, every camera lens etc etc, so make sure you factor in enough time.

When you have passed through the border, you must walk 1.5km through no man's land, which is an enclosed narrow corridor.  At the end of this wire tunnel. you will have to go through the Gaza border check point.  Again everything is checked throughly, so expect this process to last up to an hour.  Leaving Gaza is a very simple, quick process.

Another thing to be aware of is trying to travel on the Israeli religious day of "Shabbat", which starts on a friday evening until Saturday evening.

During this time Israelis are not allowed to operate anything, so even if you are staying in a western hotel, the coffee machines are switched off, no food is cooked after 7pm, which includes even toast for breakfast. The lifts will stop at every floor automatically even if there is nobody there, so people dont have to operate the buttons.

Eat early on friday evening if you want cooked food !!

As a final note our consultant tells us that if you are in Tel Aviv, there is a huge gay following, and on the beaches the females wear almost nothing, whilst an hour and half south in Gaza, the women on the beach are fully covered. Ensure you take enough clothes to cover up if you are a lady traveller.

Women in Gaza keep themselves fully covered at all times and even as a westerner it is better to cover your hair with a scarf, to stave off any unwanted attention.

If you have queries with reference to travel in Israel contact us at [email protected]

Photo: simonstudio.wordpress.com