360 foreigners and 81 wounded Palestinians evacuated from Gaza – CNN

Thursday, 2 November 2023, 04:18

Eighty-one seriously wounded Palestinians and 360 foreign passport holders left Gaza on Wednesday, 1 November through the Rafah border checkpoint.

Source: CNN, citing an unnamed Egyptian government official, as they are not allowed to speak to the media

Details: The official said people were now heading to Cairo, where some would fly back to their home countries. Among them are citizens of Austria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Italy, Japan, the USA, the UK, and France.

All 22 international staff of Doctors Without Borders have also left Gaza, and a new medical team is ready to enter the Palestinian enclave "as the situation allows," the charity said on Wednesday.

According to an Egyptian official, 491 foreign nationals were registered for evacuation to Egypt, but 130 either did not make it in time to cross the border or refused to cross without their families, whose names were not recorded on the list.

Sources familiar with the negotiations said that the release of the hostages was the result of an agreement brokered by Qatar between Israel, Hamas and Egypt in coordination with the United States.

Background:

On 14 October, Dmytro Lubinets, Ukraine’s Human Rights Commissioner, arrived in Cairo to help the authorities organise the evacuation of Ukrainian citizens from the Gaza Strip. Almost 260 Ukrainians need urgent evacuation.
On 16 October, a Ukrainian official reported that the Egyptian authorities had received lists of Ukrainian citizens for evacuation from the Gaza Strip.
On 1 November, the Rafah crossing point on the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt was opened for evacuation from the enclave. Palestinian group Hamas said some foreigners and wounded Palestinians would be allowed to evacuate from the Gaza Strip to Egypt. There are no Ukrainians in the group.
On Wednesday 1 November, Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs began preparations for the evacuation of Ukrainians from the Gaza Strip after the Egyptian authorities allowed foreigners to leave through the Rafah checkpoint.

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