335 foreign passport holders leave besieged Gaza via Rafah crossing: official
Palestinian children with dual citizenship wait outside the Rafah border crossing with Egypt, in the hope of getting permission to leave Gaza, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on November 1, 2023.
A total of 335 foreign passport holders have left the besieged Gaza Strip and entered Egypt through the Rafah border crossing on Wednesday, a Palestinian official said.
"So far, six buses carrying 335 passengers holding foreign passports have left for the Egyptian side," said Wael Abu Mohsen, a media official at the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing, the only border crossing between the Gaza Strip and Egypt.
Abu Mohsen added that 76 ambulances carrying wounded people and their companions also left for Egypt.
It is the first group of foreigners and wounded people who were allowed to leave the Gaza Strip through the Rafah crossing since the outbreak of the bloody conflict between Israel and Hamas on October 7.
Meanwhile, a new batch of humanitarian aid also arrived in the Gaza Strip earlier in the day through the same crossing.
"About 51 aid trucks carrying medical supplies, relief materials, and water entered Gaza and were delivered by the International Red Cross," Abu Mohsen said.
So far, a total of 216 trucks carrying humanitarian aid have entered Gaza since October 21, according to the United Nations. However, international relief organizations stressed this was still far from enough to address the "enormous humanitarian needs" in Gaza.
Salama Maarouf, head of Gaza's media office, expressed his appreciation for "all the efforts that resulted in the partial opening of the Rafah crossing," and thanked Egypt for "receiving a number of wounded people to Egyptian hospitals."
He urged the Egyptian authorities, in light of the catastrophic humanitarian situation in Gaza, "to open the crossing permanently so as to bring in all humanitarian needs and life supplies, most notably the fuel needed to continue the work of service systems, such as hospitals, which are now at risk of going out of service within hours."
Israel continues to block the entry of fuel into the Gaza Strip, claiming that Hamas would use the fuel to bolster its military operations against the Israeli army.
