CAIRO, November 1. /TASS/. Dozens of ambulances are entering the Gaza Strip from Egypt via the Rafah border crossing in order to retrieve the first group of wounded or seriously ill Palestinians, the Al-Qahera al-Ihbariya TV channel reported.
According to the media outlet, approximately 80 ambulances are engaged in delivering the enclave’s wounded residents from Gaza to Egypt.
Earlier, a representative of the Rafah border checkpoint administration from the Palestinian side said that 81 wounded individuals would be taken to Egypt from Gaza for medical treatment via the checkpoint on November 1. This group of Gaza residents will be the first to be received by Egypt since renewed hostilities around the Palestinian enclave broke out in early October.
The wounded Palestinians from the Gaza Strip will be taken to a specially prepared hospital in the town of Sheikh Zuweid, which is located approximately 15 kilometers from the Rafah border crossing. Depending on the severity of their wounds, the wounded Gazans may then be redirected to hospitals in Ismailia or Cairo.
Tensions flared up again in the Middle East on October 7 when militants from the Gaza-based Palestinian radical group Hamas staged a surprise incursion into Israeli territory from the Gaza Strip. Hamas described its attack as a response to the aggressive actions of Israeli authorities against the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem’s Old City. In response, Israel has announced a total blockade of the Gaza Strip, home to 2.3 million Palestinians, and has begun delivering air strikes on the enclave and certain parts of Lebanon and Syria. Clashes are underway in the West Bank as well.