Fewer than 10 people were sitting on the chairs waiting for the soldier in the glass enclosure to call each name. Many of them were mothers with their children. Most, I assumed, were patients in need of medical treatment.

They called me a few minutes after I arrived. An Israeli soldier, sitting on a tall chair behind the glass, gave me my permit and my I.D.

It is rare that I see an Israeli in person; Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005, and I was too young then to remember their presence. However, I witnessed three wars in less than six years. The last one was devastating. I remember the warplanes and F-16s and artillery shells.

At Erez, I saw members of the Israeli defense forces, but not the same ones who fought in wars that left people dead and homes destroyed. I saw Israeli soldiers working administrative jobs, soldiers who help people wanting to leave. I used English with them because I felt they wouldn’t understand me otherwise — though they speak Arabic very well.

Everyone who has passed through the tunnel has told me the same thing: The moment we leave Gaza, the air changes. It becomes clean. I noticed it, too.

After a two-hour cab ride, I arrived at the American consulate in Jerusalem, completed my interview and received my visa. I then had several days to sightsee.

Image Ms. al Waheidi in the Well of Souls, under the Dome of the Rock.

I toured Jerusalem’s Old City and prayed in the Al-Aqsa Mosque — a site of frequent conflict. I visited the Western Wall and watched as people prayed.