Nov. 1 (UPI) — People began leaving Gaza on Wednesday morning for the first time since Israel and Egypt sealed off the territory Oct. 7 in the wake of Hamas’ unprecedented raid in which 1,400 Israelis were killed and more than 200 taken hostage.
The first to leave via the Rafah Crossing with Egypt were 88 seriously injured and sick Palestinians who will be followed by an unspecified number of foreign passport holders who have been trapped in Gaza and unable to leave for weeks, according to the BBC.
Until now, only aid trucks have been permitted to use the crossing to bring in humanitarian supplies from Egypt.
Ambulances were seen entering Gaza from Egypt and later heading back to the crossing to bring patients to a newly constructed field hospital at Sheikh Zuweid on the other side of the border, about six miles inside Egypt.
Hundreds more people, mainly families with children, were gathered with their belongings at the crossing waiting to be allowed to cross.
World Health Organization Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreysus welcomed the decision by Egypt to accept Gaza’s sick and injured for treatment, adding the WHO had been working with Egypt’s Health Ministry on plans for medical evacuations.
“Attention must not be diverted from the far greater needs of thousands of patients in Gaza, many of them extremely fragile who cannot be moved,” he said. “We need an immediate acceleration in the flow of medical aid permitted into Gaza.”
British Home Secretary James Cleverly who has been engaged in intense diplomatic efforts to get humanitarian assistance in and foreign nationals out of Gaza and to try to prevent the Israel-Hamas conflict from escalating, confirmed the opening of the crossing on social media.
“The Rafah crossing is likely to open today for a first group of foreign nationals. U.K. teams are ready to assist British nationals as soon as they are able to leave. It’s vital that lifesaving humanitarian aid can enter Gaza as quickly as possible,” Cleverly said.
The crossing is controlled by Egypt which decides when it opens or closes and for how long under an agreement with the European Union. All other land and sea routes into Gaza are controlled by Israel.
The United Nations called Monday for a second border crossing with Gaza to be opened to boost the amount of desperately needed humanitarian supplies trickling through to Palestinians.
The border opening came as Gaza was plunged into another mobile phone and Internet blackout due to infrastructure being destroyed or damaged by Israeli bombardment, the second in five days.
Paltel, the strip’s only major provider, had been worst hit meaning a “total loss of telecommunications,” for most residents, Internet tracking observatory NetBlocks said in a post on X.
Incessant day and night bombardment of Gaza from airstrikes, missiles, artillery and UAVs has killed 8,525 people, including 3,542 children, and injured 21,543, according to the latest figures from the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry.
