The first group of an estimated 7,500 foreign passport holders trapped in Gaza since the Israel-Hamas war began on October 7, were able to leave the besieged enclave for Egypt through the Rafah Crossing after weeks of intense diplomatic effort.
At least 320 foreign nationals, including US and British citizens, and dozens of severely injured Gazans were among the first beneficiaries of the Qatari-mediated deal brokered between Egypt, Israel and Hamas.
They were driven through the Rafah border crossing and underwent security checks, officials said. Diplomats said initial foreign national evacuees were expected to travel by road to Cairo and fly out from there.
Egypt's health ministry said 16 medical evacuees had been transferred to hospitals in the northern Sinai region, 11 to Al Arish and five to Bir al-Abd. Egypt has also prepared a field hospital at Sheikh Zuweid, 15 km (9 miles) from Rafah, to treat evacuees from Gaza.
US State Department Spokesman Matthew Miller said a number of those who left were American citizens, but that he would not provide a head count. There are some 400 US citizens who have expressed a desire to leave, which together with their family members would constitute a group of some 1,000 people, he said.
US President Joe Biden, who has been heavily involved in securing their safe passage posted on X, “Today, thanks to American leadership, we secured safe passage for wounded Palestinians and for foreign nationals to exit Gaza.
“We expect American citizens to exit today, and we expect to see more depart over the coming days. We won't let up working to get Americans out of Gaza.7,” he stated.
An 'important first step'
US National Security Advisor spokesperson John Kirby told reporters on board “Air Force One” that the existence of the foreigners from Gaza “was an important first step” and “a significant breakthrough.”
“It is the direct result of weeks of effort and personal diplomacy by the President as well as the secretary of state and of course our special envoy on the ground David Satterfield,” Kirby said.
Biden discussed the arrangement with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier this week.
“The State Department has been in contact with US citizens in Gaza, telling them to be ready to leave and to await further instructions,” Kirby said.
United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Tor Wennesland said the exit of the foreigners was"An important step in the right direction, which we need to build on.”
Dr Fathi Abu al-Hassan, a U.S. passport holder, described hellish conditions inside Gaza without water, food or shelter.
"We open our eyes on dead people and we close our eyes on dead people," he said while waiting to cross into Egypt.
"If this happened in any other country... even in the desert, (people) will combine together to (help) us," he said.
Nahed Abu Taeema, director of the Nasser Hospital in the Gaza Strip, told Reuters 19 critically injured patients from his hospital would be among the 81 being evacuated to Egypt.
"Those require advanced surgeries that can't be done here because of the lack of capabilities, especially women and children," said Abu Taeema.
The breakthrough comes as Israel and the international community explore avenues to secure the release of over 240 hostages Hamas took captive when they infiltrated southern Israel on October 7.
The attack, during which Hamas killed over 1,400 people including by burning and dismembering them, sparked the Gaza War.
Israel has since bombarded Gaza and has sent in ground troops as part of is campaign to oust Hamas from the enclave. The terror group has forcibly controlled Gaza since 2007.
Hamas has asserted that over 8,500 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed from war-related violence. Israel has banned the entry of goods, food, medicine and fuel into Gaza through its passages, but has allowed a limited amount of humanitarian aid into the Strip through Rafah.
The US has pushed for a plan that would allow for 100 trucks a day, but has yet to meet that goal, although the number continues to rise. Aid officials have said the goods are not enough to prevent a humanitarian crisis.
At issue in particular has been Israel’s ban on fuel, which it fears Hamas would divert for military purposes. Both the US and Israel have said that Hama has fuel that it could provide for humanitarian use.
The international commuting has focused on the civilian cost of the war, particularly the harm done to hospitals and the Jabalia refugee camp as Israel battles a terror group whose infrastructure is located within a civilian population.
Hospitals struggled to cope amid shutdowns forced by shortages in fuel, Medical student Ezzedine Lulu, working at Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza, filmed himself walking through corridors filled with sleeping children sheltering from the bombardment.
"I can heal the wounds, I can stop the bleeding, I cannot heal the cold of these children's bodies. I see them shaking while they are sleeping, they have nothing to cover themselves with. Winter is coming ... Stop the inhumanity," he said.
Another blast shook Jabalia, Gaza's largest refugee camp, on Wednesday, a day after Palestinian health officials said an Israeli air strike killed about 50 people and wounded 150 there. Israel said it had killed a Hamas commander in Tuesday's attack.
There was no immediate word on possible casualties from the second explosion, but footage showed smoke billowing above the camp and people sifting through piles of rubble and carrying away the injured.
"It is a massacre," said one witness at the scene of what other witnesses said was an Israeli air strike in the Fallujah district of the large camp in the urban sprawl of north Gaza.
The Israeli military later issued a statement saying its fighter jets had struck a Hamas command and control complex in Jabalia "based on precise intelligence," killing the head of the Islamist group's anti-tank missile unit, Muhammad A'sar.
"Hamas deliberately builds its terror infrastructure under, around and within civilian buildings, intentionally endangering Gazan civilians," the statement said.
European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said he was appalled by the high number of casualties in Jabalia and he urged all sides to respect the "laws of war and humanity..."