Gaza crossing opens to tourists and injured

Ambulances with very hurt Palestinians have gone from Gaza to Egypt for the first time since the war between Israel and Hamas started.

A total of 110 people with foreign passports have been given permission to leave the area through the Rafah crossing.

The borders of Gaza have been shut since Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October.

Officials from western countries say that the border crossing at Rafah is going to keep opening for short periods of time, in order to let people with passports from other countries and civilians who have been hurt, leave.

The officials say that Egypt and Israel will make a list of the people who can go across the border. The embassies of the countries involved will be told about the list in advance so they can get ready to help their citizens.

Information reaching us is that there are around 7,000 people in Gaza who are citizens of two countries.

UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said that representatives from the British government were prepared to help around 200 British citizens as soon as they were able to depart.

Israel has been attacking Gaza for over three weeks and has now sent soldiers to fight on the ground because Hamas fighters did a surprise attack across the border. During the attack, 1,400 people were killed and 240 were taken captive.

The health department in Gaza reports that over 8,700 people have died in the area. The United Nations says that there is a shortage of food, water, fuel, and medicine because of a blockade by Israel.
On Wednesday morning, people saw ambulances hurrying to Rafah. There were injured children, and one of them had a bandage on their stomach. After the doctors checked their health, they were taken away on beds with wheels.

The BBC’s Rushdi Abu Alouf, who is currently at the crossing, was informed by Palestinian passport control officers that 88 patients who need advanced medical treatment are going to be moved to Egypt.

Around 20 people came to Egypt before the early afternoon.

Hospitals in the Gaza Strip are taking care of many injured people but don’t have enough medical supplies. So, they can’t work on these cases. According to a medic from Gaza’s health ministry named Nassem Hasan, they are unable to operate on these cases.

“Now they are being taken to the Egyptian side, and they will be checked to see if they need to go to a different hospital. ”

Many patients will go to a hospital built by Egyptian authorities in Sheikh Zuweid, which is about 9 miles away from Rafah. Some people will go to permanent hospitals in the nearby town of El-Arish or the city of Ismailia.

The head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, is pleased that Egypt has agreed to allow medical evacuations.

However, he cautioned that we should not lose focus on the much larger needs of many sick people in Gaza. These patients are very delicate and cannot be transported to other places.

We need to make medical aid go faster into Gaza right away. Hospitals should be shielded from being attacked or used by the military.

The World Health Organization (WHO) says that over one-third of Gaza’s hospitals are not working properly. The remaining hospitals are also struggling because they are overloaded with a large number of injured people.

Gaza’s health ministry says that over 20,000 people have gotten hurt.

On November 1, 2023, women and children who have passports from other countries are waiting to go from Gaza to Egypt through the Rafah border crossing.
Our reporter mentioned that around 500 people who are citizens of other countries and have citizenship in two countries are also expected to be given permission to enter Egypt on Wednesday.

In the afternoon, an Egyptian TV channel called Al-Qahera News showed a video of the first group of people getting off a bus. The group had many women and young children.

Mohammed Ghalayini, a British scientist from Manchester, was in Gaza visiting his family when the war started. He went with his uncle to the crossing because his uncle’s name was on the list of people who could be evacuated, according to Gaza authorities.

“People are very scared about the situation and if they get an opportunity to leave, they are trying to go away,” he said in an interview with the BBC.

“But it is also difficult to reach the border because there is not enough fuel available,” he explained. I saw people coming to the border on a cart pulled by a donkey, carrying their bags.

More British citizens who plan to cross soon include the parents of Scottish First Minister Humza Yousaf.

He was happy to hear that the border was being opened, but he mentioned that his in-laws were stuck without clean water to drink and their supplies were running out quickly.