At the human rights organizations in Gaza, which confirm this claim, complaints are piling up from residents whose requests have been denied. Some of the people who have been denied passports are associated with the Hamas government, like Fiza Za'anin, a member of the elected council in Beit Hanoun, a midwife who won a United Nations prize for her work with women and children during the IDF offensive in Gaza in the winter of 2008-9. Although she received a permit to take a course in East Jerusalem, she told Haaretz by telephone, her request for a passport so she could attend the prize ceremony in October in the United States was denied.

Some of those being denied passports are actually Fatah members, the apparent victims of false reports alleging they have connections to Hamas. One such person, from the Khan Yunis area, told Haaretz that after his request for a passport was denied he used all of his connections with Gazans now living in Ramallah - members of the PA security services - whose intervention finally brought him a passport, six months later.