Israel-Hamas War: First Foreigners Leave War-Torn Gaza For Egypt Through Rafah Border As IDF Rampage Continues

A first group of foreign passport holders was allowed to leave the war-battered Gaza Strip for Egypt Wednesday through Rafah Border crossing.

View of Gaza's Rafah border crossing after Qatar mediated an agreement between Egypt, Israel and Hamas, in coordination with the US, to allow for the movement of foreign passport holders and some critically injured people out of besieged Gaza.#Gaza https://t.co/rW37TUSk4r

— Reuters (@Reuters) November 1, 2023

Following the long-awaited exit, ambulances arrived from Egypt to transport over 80 critically injured Palestinians out of Gaza to a field hospital established by Egyptian authorities in the northern Sinai town of Sheikh Zuweid.

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Qatar has mediated an agreement between Egypt, Israel, and Hamas, in coordination with the U.S., which allowed limited evacuations from besieged Gaza, as reported by news agency Reuters.

The agreement allows foreign passport holders and some critically injured people to leave through the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and Gaza, though there is no timeline for how long it will remain open for evacuation.

Meanwhile, an Israeli airstrike on a Gaza refugee camp overnight resulted in hundreds of casualties, as reported by the Gaza Health Ministry. The incident drew condemnation from across the Middle East. This development comes ahead of the U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken's regional trip. 

The strike targeted Jabaliya, a densely populated area in the northern Gaza Strip with more than 100,000 inhabitants. Jabaliya is one of eight camps established by the United Nations 75 years ago to accommodate Palestinians displaced during the 1948 war leading to the creation of Israel.

Israel also confirmed that nine more soldiers had lost their lives in clashes in Gaza as part of its intensified efforts to eliminate Hamas.

The UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs described the Israeli ground operation in Gaza as the largest to date, involving intense fighting in northern Gaza and the outskirts of Gaza City, along with heavy bombardment.

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The overall number of fatalities since the conflict began stands at 8,525, with 67% being children and women, the UN reported citing Gaza Health Ministry figures.