The Rafah terminal, which connects the Gaza Strip with Egypt, reopened on Thursday to allow the evacuation of foreign nationals, dual nationals and the wounded stranded in Palestinian areas under Israeli fire since the October 7 Hamas attack, it said a Palestinian official.
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“The Rafah crossing has been reopened to transport the wounded and foreign passport holders and to allow relief trucks to enter,” an official from the Hamas government’s crossing administration told AFP. The Islamist movement that controls the Gaza Strip.
The evacuations, which began on November 1, were suspended for a second time on Wednesday due to Israel’s refusal to approve the list of wounded to be evacuated sent by Hamas authorities to Egypt.
The terminal had already been closed on November 3rd and 4th for the same reasons.
An AFP photographer in Egypt noted on Thursday that crossings had resumed, with men, women and children leaving the Gaza Strip on foot via the Rafah border crossing with some belongings. Medical services also treated injured people.
In addition to the injured, only foreign passport holders stranded in the Gaza Strip are allowed to leave the area, where the humanitarian situation for civilians is critical.
According to the various countries, several hundred people have been evacuated via Rafah since November 1 to get their nationals out.
Israel has been bombing the Gaza Strip relentlessly since October 7 and has vowed to “destroy” Hamas in retaliation for an unprecedented attack by the Islamist movement on Israeli soil.