The first group of wounded Palestinian evacuees from the war-torn Gaza Strip has crossed into Egypt through the Rafah border crossing, as Israel’s war machine is constantly bombing the besieged Palestinian territory.
Under a Qatari-mediated deal, five injured Palestinians left Gaza for Egypt to receive due treatment on Wednesday, Reuters reported, citing Egyptian media reports and a source at the border.
This comes as Israeli occupation forces pressed ahead with their offensive against fighters of the Palestinian Hamas resistance movement in the densely-populated Palestinian sliver.
The deal – reached between Israel, Hamas and Egypt – allowed a number of foreigners and critically wounded people to leave the war-ravaged territory aboard ambulances through the crossing.
On October 7, Israel launched a full-scale war on the impoverished Gaza Strip, where shortages of food, water, and medicine threaten the lives of Gazans and hospitals are overwhelmed amid incessant Israeli bombings.
The ceaseless airstrikes, missile attacks and shelling on Gaza have killed, as of Wednesday, 8,796 Palestinians, including 3,648 children and 2,290 women, and wounded at least 22,219 others, according to officials.
Around 2,000 people are still missing, including 1,100 children. The vast majority of these people are believed to be dead and buried under rubble.
The report, citing an Egyptian security source, further said that up to 500 foreign passport holders would pass the Rafah border crossing on Wednesday, adding that some 200 people were also waiting at the Palestinian side of the border in the morning.
According to medical sources, Egypt has prepared a field hospital in Sheikh Zuwayed in the Sinai.
The sources further told Reuters that the current deal was not linked to other issues, such as the release of about 240 hostages held by Hamas or a “humanitarian pause” in the war. Although many countries have called for an immediate ceasefire, the Israeli regime’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has strongly rejected it.
