There’s nothing quite like the Erez crossing, the only civilian route between Israel and the blockaded Gaza Strip, anywhere else in the world. The Israeli side looks like an airport terminal, but is in fact a fortress: surveillance balloons and motion sensors monitor above and below the sea and land that make up Gaza’s de facto borders, while semi-autonomous robots, equipped with machine guns, patrol the buffer zone.
Inside, Israeli border and military personnel use offices connected by walkways high above the ground to minimise the risk of attack. Single-person turnstiles, mazes of movable walls and caged walkways eventually lead to Palestinian territory.
