Rafah Crossing, Egypt (AP) – A group of 50 sick and injured Palestinian children began to enter Egypt for treatment Gaza Rafah Crossing On Saturday, the first opening of the border since Israel captured it almost nine months ago. Thousands of other Palestinians need such evacuations, said health officials.
The reopening of the Rafah crossing represents an important breakthrough which strengthens the ceasefire agreement Israel and Hamas arrived last month. Israel agreed to reopen the crossing after Hamas released the last living hostages in Gaza. Rafah is the only passage from Gaza which does not enter Israel.
Egyptian television al-Qahera has shown that several children have been released on Gurneys and transferred to ambulances on the Egyptian side. They were precipitated in hospitals in the Egyptian city near El-Arish and elsewhere. Images showed a young girl whose foot had been amputated.
Zaher al-Wahidi, an official of the Gaza Ministry of Health, said that 37 of the children had crossed Egypt on Saturday evening. The ministry said that around 60 family members accompanied children.
“We urge the medical evacuations to speed up on all possible ways. Thousands of lives depend on it, “said the Director General of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on social networks.
Children are the first of what is supposed to be regular evacuations of the Palestinians through the crossing for treatment abroad.
In the past 15 months, Israel’s campaign against Hamas in retaliation for activists on October 7, 2023, the attack on southern Israel The Gaza decimated health sectorAccording to health officials, leaving most of its hospitals, while more than 110,000 Palestinians were injured by Israeli bombing and ground offensives, according to health officials.
The remaining installations are unable to perform many crucial treatments or specialized surgeries for injury or disease. Mohammed Zaqout, director of hospitals at the Gaza Ministry of Health, said that more than 6,000 patients were ready to be evacuated abroad and that more than 12,000 patients had an urgent need for treatment. He said that the small numbers that should be evacuated will not cover the need, “and we hope that the number will increase.”
Israeli forces closed Rafah’s crossing in early May after Get it during an offensive on the southern city. Egypt has closed its side of the passage in protest.
Even before the start of the Gaza War, Rafah’s crossing represented a crucial evasion valve in the territory, where an Israeléloéli-Egyptian blockade of 15 years aimed to contain Hamas undermined health establishments and impoverished the population. The Palestinians regularly asked for permission to travel outside the territory for vital treatments not available in Gaza, including chemotherapy.
It took a certain diplomatic gymnastics to reopen the crossing and overcome security disputes among Israeli, Egyptian and Palestinian officials. Hamas had supervised the border since 2007, when it took control of Gaza from its rival, of the recognized international Palestinian Authority, or PA, after winning legislative elections in 2006.
Israeli troops remain at the crossing of Rafah and in the Philadelphia corridor, a strip of land flowing the length of the border. Israel refused to allow Hamas to resume the management of the crossing, accusing it of Tables of weapons through tunnels Under the border, although Egypt says that it destroyed the tunnels on its side and stopped smuggling years ago. Israel also refuses to allow the Palestinian authority to officially lead the crossing.
Instead, the level crossing will be made up of Gaza Palestinians who previously served as border officers with AP, but they will not be allowed to carry official AP insignia, said a European diplomat, Speaking under the cover of anonymity because they were not allowed to inform the media. Israel detected the officers to ensure that they have no affiliation with Hamas, added the European diplomat.
The European Union monitors will also be present, as before 2007.
Negotiations on the second phase of the agreement – which require a permanent ceasefire, a complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and the release of the remaining hostages – are supposed to start on Monday. Israel has resisted the idea that the AP would control Gaza after the war.