Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt opens for limited evacuation
The Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt has opened for the first time in more than three weeks of brutal conflict to allow the evacuation of dozens of injured Palestinians requiring hospital treatment and hundreds of foreign passport holders, The Guardian reports.
Live pictures from television crews at the border on the Gaza side showed scores of people and cars moving through the gates towards the Egyptian side through the damaged terminal area, some carrying their belongings.
The opening of the crossing was negotiated between Egypt, Israel and Hamas, in coordination with the US, after the intervention of Qatar, which mediated in the talks.
However, there was no indication of how long the Rafah crossing would remain open. There had been mounting international pressure to open Rafah on humanitarian grounds.
The border authority in Gaza added that Egypt had agreed to let in 81 of the most badly wounded on Wednesday. Hundreds of people have gathered at the crossing at different times in recent weeks, but have not been allowed out due to disagreements among Egypt, Israel and Hamas. No one had been allowed to leave Gaza, except for four hostages released by Hamas.
Although more than 200 trucks carrying desperately needed aid have crossed into Gaza from Egypt, no people had been allowed to flee the battered territory.
Foreign governments say there are passport holders from 44 countries, as well as 28 agencies, including UN bodies, living in the Gaza Strip, where 2.4 million people have endured more than three weeks of unrelenting Israeli bombardment in response to the 7 October Hamas attacks.
The opening of the crossing came as Palestinians reported another widespread outage of internet and phone service in Gaza on Wednesday, hours after Israeli airstrikes levelled apartment buildings near Gaza City and as ground troops battled Hamas militants inside the besieged territory.
