MOHAMMED ABED / AFP
The Rafah border crossing is the only place through which foreigners and Gaza citizens can leave the Gaza Strip.
MIDDLE EAST – Blocked again. The evacuation of French and other foreigners from the Gaza Strip was suspended by Hamas this Saturday, November 4th. At issue is Israel’s refusal to allow wounded Palestinians to go to Egyptian hospitals, a border crossing administration official told AFP.
However, “nearly forty French people and their families” were evacuated from the Palestinian enclave this Friday, the Foreign Ministry said. “You are safe in Egypt,” he confirmed this Saturday.
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The Egyptian Ministry of Health also announced this Friday that “448 foreigners and dual nationals” “including 96 children” had been evacuated from Gaza. An encouraging dynamic that did not continue this Saturday.
The priority is to evacuate the injured
“No foreign passport holder will be able to leave the Gaza Strip until the wounded who need to be evacuated from hospitals in northern Gaza can be transported to the Rafah crossing,” a border crossing between the Palestinian territory and Egypt, the official said on condition of anonymity.
An Egyptian security source confirmed to AFP that “no injured person or foreign passport holder arrived at the Egyptian terminal” in Rafah on Saturday. The crossings had been suspended, this source added, “following the bombing of ambulances transporting the wounded on the way to the Egyptian terminal.”
Sources within Hamas said Israel had refused to authorize the departure to Egypt of many wounded people whose names were on a list sent to Egyptian authorities.
Since Wednesday, several hundred foreigners and dual nationals have been evacuated from Gaza, which has been under relentless Israeli shelling since Hamas’ October 7 attack on its territory, leaving more than 1,400 dead, mostly civilians, according to Israeli authorities.
Dozens of wounded Palestinians were also able to reach Egyptian territory, where they were hospitalized in various facilities in Sinai.
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