DOHA/DUBAI - The first groups of injured Gazans and foreign passport holders were evacuated to Egypt through the Rafah crossing on Wednesday under a deal brokered by Qatar.

The wounded were being examined by medical teams who were directing them to hospitals, an Egyptian medical source said.

Egypt has prepared a field hospital in Sheikh Zuweid, 15km from Rafah. There are plans to direct some patients to a permanent hospital in Sheikh Zuweid, to one in the nearby town of Al-Arish, or farther afield in the city of Ismailia, depending on the seriousness of their conditions.

As at 1210 GMT, the first groups of foreign passport holders were undergoing security checks on the Egyptian side of the border. At least 320 foreign passport holders and some injured Gazans left the Palestinian enclave through the Rafah crossing into Egypt.

Under the deal reached between Egypt, Israel and Hamas, 81 wounded people and an initial list of 500 foreign passport holders were expected to be allowed to leave the besieged territory in the coming days, according to sources in several countries.

The evacuations come more than three weeks into a total blockade of Gaza by Israel and provided a rare glimmer of hope in an otherwise desolate humanitarian crisis.

The country has been bombarding the Palestinian enclave and has sent in ground troops in response to an attack by Hamas fighters on Israel on Oct 7.

The attack on southern Israel left about 300 soldiers and 1,100 civilians dead, according to Israeli figures. Hamas gunmen also took more than 200 hostages.

Israeli strikes on Gaza since then have killed around 8,800 Palestinians, including 3,542 children, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.

Mr Nahed Abu Taeema, director of the Nasser Hospital in the Gaza Strip, told Reuters that 19 critically injured patients from his hospital would be among the 81 being evacuated to Egypt.

“Those require advanced surgery that can’t be done here because of the lack of capabilities, especially women and children,” he said.

A list of foreign passport holders who would be allowed to leave Gaza had been agreed between Israel and Egypt. Relevant embassies have been informed, a Western official said.

Indonesia said it was trying to get 10 nationals out but three of them, volunteers at an Indonesia-run hospital, have decided to stay. The Philippines said two Filipino doctors with non-governmental organisation Doctors Without Borders were among those leaving Gaza.

Jordan and Italy also said they hoped their citizens could be out on Wednesday.

Britain’s foreign ministry said it understood the Rafah crossing would be open for time-limited periods to allow specific groups of foreign nationals and the seriously wounded to leave.

It added that it was likely the departure of British nationals would take place in stages over the coming days.

The precise timeline of the limited evacuations was not confirmed.

Field hospital

Live Reuters footage of the Gaza side of the Rafah crossing showed ambulances coming and going.

At one point, it showed a couple with children putting suitcases into the trunk of a car, but it was not immediately possible to confirm whether the family was being evacuated.

An Egyptian security source said up to 500 foreign passport holders will pass the Rafah border crossing on Wednesday.

About 200 people were waiting at the Palestinian side of the border on Wednesday morning, the source said.

A second source said not all 500 were expected to make it out on Wednesday.

Medical sources in Egypt’s Sinai region, bordering Gaza, said a field hospital of four tents, each containing 20 beds, and 12 medical caravans, had been set up in Sheikh Zuweid.

Local hospitals in Sheikh Zuweid and Al-Arish were also preparing to admit Gazan patients, with more difficult cases expected to be sent to Ismailia, the sources said.

A source at the border said 40 ambulances were at the crossing to take part in evacuation operations.

In addition, 70 aid trucks were in the Rafah area, going through the process of checks required before they enter Gaza.

That movement of aid is taking place under an existing agreement with Israel that has allowed a trickle of supplies into the enclave over the past 10 days.

The Rafah crossing, controlled by Egypt, is the main entrance and exit point to Gaza from Egypt. It is in a region tightly controlled by the Egyptian military, which battled an insurgency there that peaked after 2013 and has now been largely suppressed.

With Egypt wary of insecurity near the border with Gaza, only people who have obtained security clearance from the Egyptian authorities are allowed close to the Rafah crossing.

Qatar-mediated deal

The Gulf state of Qatar maintains ties with Israel and Hamas. It mediated the deal between the two sides to allow the evacuation to take place, a source briefed on the matter told Reuters.

The source said this deal, however, was not linked to other issues, such as the release of the hostages held by Hamas.

Hamas has told mediators it will soon release some foreign captives, spokesman Abu Ubaida of the group’s armed wing al-Qassam Brigades said in a video on the Telegram app on Tuesday.

He gave no further details on the number of captives or their nationalities.

Refugee camp hit

The Rafah crossing deal followed another day of bloodshed in Gaza in which an Israeli air strike killed about 50 people in a refugee camp, according to Palestinian health officials.

The Israeli military said Tuesday’s strikes on Jabalia, Gaza’s largest refugee camp, had also killed Ibrahim Biari as well as dozens of Hamas militants. He was a Hamas commander said to be “pivotal” in the planning and execution of the Oct 7 assault.

A Hamas statement said there were 400 dead and injured in Jabalia, which houses families of refugees from wars with Israel dating back to 1948.

Hamas’ al-Qassam Brigades said seven civilian hostages were killed in the strikes on Jabalia, including three foreign passport holders. There was no immediate comment from Israel on the claim.

Eleven Israeli soldiers were also killed in fierce fighting on Tuesday, the Israeli military said. It was the biggest one-day loss for the armed forces since the initial assault.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu mourned the military losses, and said the war would be long but victorious.

“We are in a tough war. It will be a long war,” he said. “I promise to all citizens of Israel: We will get the job done. We will press ahead until victory.”

Communications and Internet services were completely cut off in Gaza again on Wednesday, telecommunications provider Paltel said.

After a lull of several hours in rocket fire, the Israeli military were sounding sirens in multiple southern communities as well as the port cities of Ashkelon and Ashdod.

Power outage

Two of Gaza’s main hospitals – Al Shifa Medical and the Indonesia Hospital – face a power outage as their generators rapidly run out of fuel.

Mr Ashraf Al-Qidra, a spokesman for Gaza’s health ministry, called on petrol station owners in the enclave to urgently provide fuel as doctors worked around the clock to treat casualties with whatever supplies they had.

“We take it an hour at a time,” Dr Mohammed al-Run said.

Mr Netanyahu has dismissed international calls for a “humanitarian pause” in fighting to enable emergency aid deliveries to civilians.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called on Muslim states to cease oil and food exports to Israel, demanding an end to its bombardment of the Gaza Strip, state media reported.

“The bombings on Gaza must stop immediately... the path of oil and food exports to the Zionist regime should be stopped,” Mr Khamenei said in a speech, according to Iranian state media.

Permutations

The US and other countries are meanwhile looking at “a variety of permutations” for the future of the Gaza Strip if Hamas is removed from control, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Tuesday.

He told a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing that the status quo of Hamas being in charge of Gaza could not continue. Israel does not want to run the enclave either, he said.

Among the options that are being explored by the US and Israel was the possibility of a multinational force that may involve US troops. The other option is to temporarily place Gaza under United Nations oversight, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday.

The current escalation in violence is the worst in many years of sporadic warfare. It erupted at a time when Palestinian hopes for an independent state and an end to Israel’s occupation appear to be as far away as ever.

Peace talks are now just a distant memory and Mr Netanyahu’s right-wing government has expanded Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. REUTERS, AFP