Following Israel’s refusal to let the evacuation of several injured Palestinians to Egyptian hospitals, the Hamas leadership in Gaza halted the evacuation of foreign passport holders to Egypt on Saturday, according to a border official.
Under condition of anonymity, the official said, “No foreign passport holder will be able to leave the Gaza Strip until wounded people who need to be evacuated from hospitals in north Gaza are transported through the Rafah crossing” to Egypt.
“No wounded person or holder of a foreign passport arrived at the Egyptian terminal” of Rafah on Saturday, an Egyptian security source confirmed to AFP.
“After the bombing of ambulances transporting injured people who were on their way to the Egyptian terminal,” he claimed, the evacuation was halted.
The biggest hospital in Gaza, Al-Shifa, was attacked by an ambulance on Friday, according to the Israeli army, who said it was “used by a Hamas terrorist cell”.
The health ministry in Gaza reports that the attack resulted in at least 15 fatalities and 60 injuries.
Following the October 7 assaults, which Israel claims cost 1,400 fatalities, largely of civilians, Israel declared war on Hamas in Gaza.
Nearly 9,500 Palestinians have died as a result of air, land, and sea strikes on Gaza, according to the health ministry operated by Hamas.
