A woman gives water to a child while waiting next to Palestinian health ministry ambulances at the Rafah border crossing with Egypt.MOHAMMED ABED/AFP/Getty Images
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Dozens of seriously injured Palestinians and hundreds of foreign nationals, including one Canadian, have been allowed to leave the besieged Gaza Strip, the first such evacuations since Israel began a massive bombing campaign more than three weeks ago.
Authorities in Israel and Egypt gave permission for badly wounded Palestinians to exit Wednesday through the southern Rafah crossing into Egypt. They also authorized the departure of foreign passport holders. Last month, four hostages had been released by Hamas and a fifth was rescued by Israeli forces.
On Wednesday night, Gazan authorities said 76 wounded people and those accompanying them had left in ambulances, while six buses carried out more than 330 passengers holding foreign passports.
A document published on Facebook by the General Authority for Crossings and Borders in Gaza showed the list of foreign nationals leaving Gaza included citizens of Australia, Austria, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Finland, Indonesia, Japan and Jordan. Workers for the International Committee of the Red Cross and UNRWA, the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, were also included.
The U.S. State Department said more departures of foreign nationals are anticipated over the next few days.
Although a trickle of aid trucks has been allowed into Gaza over the past several days, foreign nationals and Gazans were not allowed to exit at the Rafah crossing.
The Al Jazeera news service, which has journalists on the Gaza side of the Rafah crossing, reported “huge queues” of people at the border Wednesday and an atmosphere that was “very chaotic.”
The opening of the crossing was set against a new communications blackout in Gaza, which followed a 34-hour cut to internet and cellular service on the weekend. Israeli forces have also continued their bombing campaign after deadly attacks on the densely populated Jabaliya refugee camp that, Israel said, killed Hamas commander Ibrahim Biari.
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More than 8,500 people have been killed in the territory during the Israel-Hamas war, according to numbers released by the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants. Forty per cent of those killed were children, according to the ministry.
A total of 451 Canadians have registered with Ottawa to say they are in the West Bank and Gaza – nearly all of them in the latter.
Their departure has been a key priority for the government of Canada.
“Global Affairs Canada is aware of reports of a Canadian citizen crossing Rafah border with a third party,” Emily Williams, director of communications for Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly said in a statement.
A government source said the Canadian exited Gaza with an international organization. The Globe and Mail is not identifying the source because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.
Palestinians with dual citizenship wait at the Rafah border crossing with Egypt, in the hope of getting permission to leave Gaza, on Nov. 1.IBRAHEEM ABU MUSTAFA/Reuters
Local authorities were concerned that having large numbers of people leaving Gaza at once would risk security issues – including from a crush of humanity and backlash from Gazans not allowed to leave, said a person with knowledge of the situation. The Globe and Mail is not identifying the person because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the matter.
Some U.S. citizens left Gaza through Rafah on Wednesday, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said. He would not say exactly how many had left, citing “operational security,” but said there are roughly 1,000 U.S. citizens and their family members in Gaza who have told American officials that they would like to leave.
The Facebook document listed five U.S. citizens allowed out, all of them workers for humanitarian groups, including Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors without Borders), Palestine Children’s Relief Fund and Catholic Relief Services.
“We expect exits of U.S. citizens and foreign nationals to continue over the next several days,” Mr. Miller told reporters at State headquarters in Washington. “We want to make sure we can get U.S. citizens and their family members out as safely as possible.”
He said the State Department was e-mailing each U.S. citizen in Gaza to tell them when to be at Rafah. The timed exits, he said, would continue for at least 24 to 72 hours. “We will keep working on it to ensure that all of the U.S. citizens who wish to depart safety from Gaza can do so.”
Hamas had previously been the holdup for getting people out of Gaza, Mr. Miller said, but he insisted that “we are not making any concessions” to the group in order to get people out. He suggested that the ability to get wounded Palestinians into Egypt was the reason Hamas agreed to let foreigners leave.
U.S. President Joe Biden thanked the government of Qatar, the Gulf petrostate that houses a Hamas office, for helping broker the deal to get people out. He credited “concerted American leadership” for the partial opening of the Rafah crossing.
“We’re working non-stop to get Americans out of Gaza as soon and safely as possible,” he said before an unrelated speech in Minnesota.
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The Canadian government on Wednesday said Canada has one of the largest contingents of nationals in Gaza and has provided regional partners a list of close to 450 eligible Canadian citizens, permanent residents and their family members who want to leave.
Ottawa said it’s pleased the Rafah crossing has opened.
“We have plans in place to receive Canadians, permanent residents and family members once they cross Rafah, to provide any support necessary, including documentation and onward travel to Canada,” Global Affairs said in a statement.
It said federal officials “continue to work around the clock to secure a window for Canadians to exit Gaza” and are communicating directly with Canadians in the territory to provide updates.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told the House of Commons that the government was calling for Canadians to be allowed to leave.
“We of course continue to unequivocally condemn Hamas’s abhorrent terrorism and Israel has the right to defend itself, but the price of justice cannot be the continued suffering of all Palestinian civilians,” he said.
“We’re calling [for] the liberation of hostages, on aid to flow in and on Canadians and their families to get out of Gaza through the Rafah crossing.”
Among the Canadians still in Gaza is Ehab Bader, a doctor by training who has been helping out at a hospital located in the north of the enclave, where conditions have become increasingly difficult. His wife, Rana Bader, told The Globe from her home in London, Ont., that she’s heard nothing from Canadian officials about plans to extricate Canadians trapped in Gaza, including her husband.
“I want him out as soon as possible,” she said. “At the moment, we feel like second-class Canadians. Other countries are looking out for their citizens and getting them out. Nobody is taking care of us.”
Ms. Bader said Canadian officials have advised Dr. Bader to travel to the south of the country to the Rafah border crossing. But such a trip is now perilous and impractical, she said.
“The road is very risky,” she said. “We have heard it is full of Israeli equipment.”
She calls her husband every day, and sometimes every hour, but communication in Gaza has gone silent for days at a time. When she’s not calling him or the Canadian government, she says she’s praying with her three daughters for her husband’s safe return. “I lost my brother on 8th of October when my parents’ house was bombarded,” she said. “Do I wait to lose my husband as well?”
Another London resident, Samah Al-Sabbagh, said her 73-year-old father is in a similar predicament. He went on vacation to see relatives in Gaza in early October. He’s now trapped in the north of the enclave with no safe route to the Rafah crossing.
“When we talk to him he’s asking us what’s going on, whether the border is open and what’s Canada doing,” she said. “I have no answer for him.”