Hopes rise that dozens of Gaza injured could be taken to Egypt via Rafah crossing
Egypt is preparing to treat dozens of wounded Palestinians from Gaza, according to multiple reports, as expectations rose that the enclave’s only crossing not controlled by Israel will open to also allow out foreign nationals who have been trapped during the weeks of war.
The border authority in Gaza said that Egypt had agreed to let in 81 of the most badly wounded on Wednesday, after the unrelenting Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip, with the Hamas-run health ministry saying more than 8,500 people have been killed, including over 3,500 children.
The strikes on Gaza began after a 7 October attack in which Hamas militants entered southern Israel, killing 1,400 people, the majority civilians, according to Israeli officials.
On Tuesday, a photographer with the AFP news agency said a large number of ambulances had gathered at the Rafah crossing, while a medical official in the Egyptian city of El Arish told the news agency that medical teams will be present at the crossing to examine cases and determine which hospitals they will be sent to.
The medical official added that a field hospital with an area of 1,300 square metres would be built to receive the wounded Palestinians in the city of Sheikh Zuweid in northern Sinai, about 15km from Rafah.
The US had made “real progress” in the last few hours in negotiations to secure a safe passage for hundreds of Americans and other foreign nationals who wish to leave Gaza, US state department spokesperson Matthew Miller said.
“We would hope that any agreement to get any individuals out would also unlock the possibility of American citizens or their families and other foreign nationals coming out,” he said.
Miller said that the United States would inform US citizens in Gaza to head to Rafah “as soon as we have actionable information.”
On Wednesday, the BBC reported that the UK Foreign Office had informed British nationals trapped in Gaza that Rafah might open for limited exits.
The US has been working with Qatar and Egypt to open the Rafah border crossing to allow American citizens to leave. So far traffic at Rafah has reopened one way allowing a limited number of aid trucks to go into Gaza.
Israeli national security council chief Tzachi Hanegbi told reporters that Israel was speaking with Egypt about the injured, but made clear that there was still a dispute on aid deliveries, with Egypt seeking to let more trucks into Gaza but Israel saying it was limited to searching dozens of vehicles a day.
The United States, which has backed Israel but pressed for greater humanitarian considerations, has voiced hope that 100 trucks a day could go through Rafah.
US secretary of state Antony Blinken will visit Israel on Friday for meetings with members of the government and then make other stops in the region, the department said.
Reports that the crossing would open on Wednesday came hours after an Israeli strike on the largest refugee camp in Gaza, in which the health ministry has said at least 50 people were killed.
At least six airstrikes hit residential areas in the Jabalia refugee camp on Gaza City’s outskirts on Tuesday. The Israeli military said it had targeted the camp to kill Ibrahim Biari – a key Hamas commander linked to the group’s 7 October attack on Israel who, it said, had taken over civilian buildings in Gaza City with his fighters.
Egypt on Tuesday condemned the strike on Jabalia camp “in the strongest terms”, warning against “the consequences of the continuation of these indiscriminate attacks that target defenceless civilians” in a foreign ministry statement.
Early on Wednesday Paltel – a Palestinian telecoms company – said that communications and internet services have been completely cut off in Gaza due to international access being disconnected.
Phone and internet were cut on Friday, plunging Gaza into a communications blackout, before being restored later.
Agence France-Presse and Reuters contributed to this report