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Hamas and Egypt have agreed a deal to allow some critically wounded people out of Gaza for the first time since the war erupted between the Palestinian militant group and Israel more than three weeks ago, Palestinian officials said.
Diplomats were also hopeful that some of the 6,000 foreign nationals trapped inside the besieged coastal strip would be able to leave through the Rafah crossing between Egypt and Gaza.
UK foreign secretary James Cleverly said on social media that the Rafah crossing was “likely to open today for a first group of foreign nationals”.
The deal was brokered by Qatar, a western ally that hosts Hamas’s political office, according to a person briefed on the talks.
Ashraf al-Qudra, the Gaza health ministry spokesperson, told Egyptian state-owned broadcaster al-Qahera News that an agreement had been reached for 81 wounded people to leave Gaza for treatment outside.
“We were officially notified that the crossing will open for the first group of wounded to exit. There are hundreds of thousands who need to go out,” he said.
He added that the ministry was trying to send to Egypt patients who “are dangerous or complex cases for whom there is no treatment in Gaza and who can be transported”.
Wael Abo Omer, a spokesperson on the Gaza side of the Rafah crossing, said it would be open on Wednesday “for a number of the wounded to leave to continue their treatment in Egyptian hospitals”.
Three people familiar with the situation said diplomats were discussing a plan to allow 500 foreign nationals to leave Gaza on Wednesday, and 1,000 a day thereafter, but cautioned that the situation could change.
A spokesperson for Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said it was “communicating with all individuals registered with us in Gaza about departure options, including to make them aware of the possibility of the opening of the Rafah border on 1 November”.
Consular officials in Cairo were ready to provide support to those Australians and their family members who crossed into Egypt, the spokesperson said.
Efforts to allow hundreds of foreign passport holders trapped in Gaza to leave had been stuck because of a dispute between Hamas and Egypt over the positioning of UN monitors, according to diplomats.
Egypt wanted the UN to manage the evacuation of foreign passport holders from the hemmed-in coastal enclave, three western diplomats said.
But Cairo insisted UN officials should be on the side of Gaza’s border controlled by Hamas. The Palestinian militant group wanted them stationed on the Egyptian side.
Western governments have been working with Egypt to ensure safe passage from Gaza for foreign nationals and Palestinians with dual citizenship through its Rafah crossing ever since Israel launched its bombardment of the Hamas-controlled strip more than three weeks ago in the wake of Hamas’s attack on Israel, which killed more than 1,400 people, according to Israeli officials.
Israel’s bombardment has killed more than 8,500 people in Gaza and injured more than 21,500, according to Palestinian officials. Israel has also severely restricted supplies of electricity, water, fuel and food to Gaza, prompting UN officials to warn of a human catastrophe in the enclave.
US secretary of state Antony Blinken on Tuesday said finding a way to help the 500-600 US citizens trapped in Gaza to leave the strip was a top priority that continued to be stifled by Hamas.
“This is something we’re working on every single day,” Blinken said while testifying at a US Senate hearing in support of President Joe Biden’s $105bn supplementary budget request for Israel and Ukraine. “To date the impediment has been Hamas.”
Itayi Viriri, a spokesperson for the International Organization for Migration, told the Financial Times that several member states had reached out to the UN agency “requesting support in the evacuation of hundreds of foreign nationals from Gaza”.
Additional reporting by Nic Fildes in Sydney