CAIRO, November 3. /TASS/. Israeli authorities are preventing the transportation of wounded Palestinians from the northern Gaza Strip to the south of the enclave for further transfer to Egypt for treatment, Palestinian Health Ministry Spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said.
"The Israeli occupation authorities are preventing the transfer of the wounded from hospitals in the north of the Strip to southern areas in order to take them to the Rafah crossing and move them to Egypt for treatment," Al-Qahera al-Ekhbariya television cited him as saying.
He added that Cairo's decision to accept wounded Palestinians from Gaza "allowed dozens of those seriously wounded in Israel’s bombardment to receive professional medical treatment within days." Al-Qudra believes that the process of transferring the wounded from Gaza to Egypt "requires concerted action and efforts to get the hundreds of seriously wounded people, those who cannot be treated in Gaza hospitals, outside the Strip."
Earlier, the Palestinian Ministry of Health requested the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to provide ICRC staff with escort ambulances to carry the wounded from northern Gaza to the southern part of the Strip. These measures were requested in order to avoid jeopardizing the convoys of ambulances from coming under fire by Israel.