The Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt has opened for the first time in more than three weeks of brutal conflict to allow the evacuation of dozens of Palestinian injured requiring hospital treatment and hundreds of foreign passport holders. Live pictures from television crews at the border on the Gaza’s side showed scores of people and cars moving through the gates towards the Egyptian side through the damaged terminal area, some carrying their belongings. By late Wednesday, at least 335 dual nationals and 76 injured seriously wounded and sick people had crossed the border, with more expected to follow.
The opening of the crossing was negotiated between Egypt, Israel and Hamas, in coordination with the US, after the intervention of Qatar, which mediated in the talks. There is no indication of how long the Rafah crossing would remain open. The border authority in Gaza added that Egypt had agreed to let in 81 of the most badly wounded on Wednesday, seeking evacuation. A security source told Reuters up to 500 people may be able to leave.
The families of British citizens trapped in Gaza have said it is devastating that their loved ones have been turned away from the Rafah border crossing with Egypt, as the Foreign Office said the first UK nationals had made it through. It is understood that initially only two of the 500 people on a list of those eligible to leave were British nationals.
Israeli forces continued to bomb the Palestinian enclave from land, sea and air as they pressed their offensive against Hamas militants. Another blast shook Jabalia, Gaza’s largest refugee camp, on Wednesday, a day after Palestinian health officials said an Israeli airstrike killed about 50 people and wounded 150 there. Israel said it killed a Hamas commander in the attack. The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said it has killed Muhammad A’sar, the commander of Hamas’s anti-tank guided missile array, in an airstrike in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday.
Hamas’s armed wing, al-Qassam Brigades, claimed on Wednesday that seven civilian hostages were killed in Israeli strikes on Jabalia refugee camp, including three foreign passport holders. Hamas seized more than 240 hostages during its murderous rampage inside Israel on 7 October, including children, women and elderly people. Since then it has released four civilians, the Israeli army claims to have rescued one IDF soldier who was a hostage, and Shani Louk, who was thought to be a hostage, has been declared killed.
Saudi Arabia on Wednesday roundly condemned the deadly Israeli bombing of Gaza’s largest refugee camp that killed dozens of people. Israel claimed it had targeted a Hamas tunnel complex under the densely populated Jabalia camp, killing local battalion commander Ibrahim Biari, who it believes was involved in the militant group’s 7 October attacks. AFP witnessed at least 47 bodies being recovered from the scene.
The UN human rights office said Israel’s airstrike on Gaza’s Jabalia refugee camp on Tuesday could amount to war crimes. The agency said it had “serious concerns” given the “high number of civilian casualties and the scale of destruction” following the strikes. The UN’s humanitarian chief, Martin Griffiths, said the airstrikes were “just the latest atrocity to befall the people of Gaza” and said the world “seems unable, or unwilling, to act.”
Benjamin Netanyahu has mourned the loss of Israeli soldiers inside Gaza, saying “We are in a difficult war”. In a statement he said “This will be a long war. We have so many important achievements but also painful losses. Our soldiers have fallen in the most just of wars, the war for our home”.
The only cancer treatment hospital in the Gaza Strip has gone out of service after it ran out of fuel, health officials said on Wednesday. The director of the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship hospital told a press conference “We tell the world – don’t leave cancer patients to a certain death due to the hospital being out of service.”
Internet and phone networks were down across the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, the Palestinian telecommunications agency said. It is the second such blackout in Gaza in less than a week.
The UN child rights committee has warned that “grave” human rights violations against children are “mounting by the minute” in the Gaza Strip, and called for an immediate ceasefire. “There are no winners in a war where thousands of children are killed,” the UN committee on the rights of the child said in a statement on Wednesday.
At least 8,525 Palestinians, including 3,542 children, have been killed in bombardments in Gaza, according to Hamas health ministry figures issued before the strikes on Jabalia. Gaza has become “a graveyard for thousands of children,” a Unicef spokesperson said.
Pope Francis said on Wednesday that a two-state solution was needed for Israel and Palestine. The head of the Catholic church noted that Jerusalem should be given special status.
Palestine solidarity protesters have gathered outside Downing Street as Kamala Harris arrived for a meeting with Rishi Sunak. The White House said on Monday that Harris would be visiting the UK and meeting Sunak to discuss matters including the Israel-Hamas conflict and “next steps in our support for Ukraine”.
The BBC has announced it is launching an emergency radio service for Gaza in response to the conflict in the region.
