Ambulances yesterday transported wounded residents out of Gaza for urgent medical care in Egypt, with hundreds of desperate foreign passport holders also starting to flee the territory devastated by three weeks of war with Israel.
The evacuation of the first people to escape war-torn Gaza provided a rare glimmer of hope in an otherwise desolate humanitarian crisis, with 8,796 people killed in Israeli bombing, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to “continue until victory” over Hamas, whose brutal Oct. 7 attack sparked the latest conflict, the deadliest in decades of unrest between the two sides.
Photo: AFP
A phalanx of 40 white ambulances streamed through the Rafah border crossing, as crowds of foreign and dual-national families gathered nearby, hoping to leave the catastrophic conditions of Gaza behind them.
At least two children were seen in the ambulances, one with a large bandage wrapped around his stomach, as medics examined the wounded and transferred them to stretchers.
Jordanian citizen Saleh Hussein said she received word in the middle of the night that she was on the list for evacuation.
“We’ve faced many problems in Gaza, the least of which were the shortage of water and the power outage. There were bigger problems such as the bombardment. We were afraid. Many families were martyred,” she said.
News footage showed families, struggling to carry their worldly possessions, rushing through the heavily fortified crossing toward Egypt, which was expected to admit at least 400 foreign passport holders and 90 of the most seriously wounded and sick.
A first group of mostly women and children arrived in Egypt, an official said on condition of anonymity, as TV images showed parents with strollers and elderly people clambering off a bus.
“It’s enough. We’ve endured enough humiliation,” said Gaza resident Rafik al-Hilou, accompanying relatives including children aged one and four hoping to cross into Egypt. “We lack the most basic human needs. No Internet, no phones, no means of communication, not even water. For the past four days, we haven’t been able to feed this child a piece of bread. What are you waiting for?”
Israel has relentlessly pounded Gaza in retribution for the worst attack in the country’s history, when Hamas militants stormed across the border, killing 1,400 people, mostly civilians, Israeli officials said.
More tanks yesterday poured over the border into northern Gaza, as Israel stepped up its ground incursion launched late last week.
Images provided by the military showed troops picking through bombed-out houses searching for militants or some of the 240 hostages seized by Hamas.
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