Israel and Hamas at war, day 26 | First ambulances carrying wounded from Gaza enter Egypt

(Cairo) The first ambulances carrying wounded from Gaza bombed by Israel entered Egypt on Wednesday, an Egyptian official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Egyptian televisions broadcast live the entry of these vehicles on the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing, Gaza’s only opening to the world, which is not in the hands of Israel.

Israeli bombings in the Gaza Strip have left 8,525 dead, including 3,542 children, and more than 21,000 injured since October 7, according to the Hamas Ministry of Health, which controls this Palestinian territory.

White Palestinian ambulances drove through the terminal, where yellow and blue Egyptian ambulances had been waiting since the day before.

On the Palestinian side, an AFP journalist saw at least 40 ambulances, each carrying two wounded, entering the Rafah terminal from Palestinian territory to cross into Egypt.

The wounded will be transported, television reports indicate, to a field hospital in Cheikh Zoueid, about ten kilometers west of Rafah, as well as to Al-Arich, capital of the North Sinai province and, for the most critical cases, to hospitals in Cairo, a five-hour drive from Rafah.

Egypt insists that the nearly 90 injured people allowed to cross Wednesday are leaving the Gaza Strip before the nearly 545 dual nationals and foreigners apparently allowed to reach Egypt afterward.

A list with their name, nationality and passport number was published by the administration of the Palestinian side of the crossing.

According to foreign chancelleries, nationals of 44 countries and 28 foreign agencies, organizations or NGOs are in the Gaza Strip, where 2.4 million inhabitants must survive under bombs, without water, without electricity, without telephone or internet on Wednesday and almost without food due to the “total siege” imposed by Israel after 16 years of blockade.

Women, old people, children

On Wednesday morning, in Rafah, on the Egyptian side, Egyptian televisions close to the intelligence services showed live a line of ambulances entering the terminal.

According to a Palestinian official at the terminal, a total of 88 injured people, including 40 children, women and elderly people, were expected to leave via Rafah to be treated in Egyptian hospitals.

The spokesperson for the Ministry of Health in the Hamas government in Gaza, Ashraf al-Qudra, told AFP that his services had submitted to Egypt a list of 4,000 wounded requiring care which cannot be provided in the Gaza Strip.

A medical official from the Egyptian town of Al-Arich, about forty kilometers from Rafah, told AFP on Tuesday, on condition of anonymity, that a “field hospital of 1,300 m² » had been mounted in Cheikh Zoueid, about ten kilometers from Rafah.

The Gaza Strip has been subjected since October 9 to a “complete siege” which deprives its 2.4 million inhabitants of deliveries of water, food and electricity.

According to Cogat, the Israeli Defense Ministry body overseeing civilian activities in the Palestinian Territories, 70 trucks of humanitarian aid entered Gaza on Tuesday. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported 143 trucks entering between October 21 and Monday evening, but insisted on the need for much more massive aid.

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, on Tuesday implored the Security Council to “overcome” its fractures in order to “demand” a ceasefire.

In the Palestinian territory, at least 240 hostages, kidnapped during the October 7 attack, are also still in the hands of Hamas, which Israel, the United States and the European Union consider a “terrorist” organization.

While their loved ones, in Israel and abroad, live in anguish over their fate, the military wing of Hamas assured Tuesday that it stood ready to release “a number of foreigners in the coming days” .

11 Israeli soldiers killed Tuesday

Already massive, Israeli bombings have further increased in intensity in recent days. On Wednesday, the Israeli army announced that it had struck “more than 11,000 targets” since October 7.

These bombings are now coupled with “fierce fighting” on the ground, according to the same source. On Tuesday, 11 Israeli soldiers were killed in the fighting, the Israeli army said, bringing the number of soldiers killed since the start of the war to 326.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reacted by promising “victory” despite these “painful losses”.

On Monday and Tuesday, the Israeli army claimed to have killed “dozens” of Hamas fighters. The Palestinian Islamist movement has not provided any assessment of its losses. Tuesday was also marked by a deadly bombardment by the Israeli army of the largest refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, in Jabaliya (north, 116,000 inhabitants), aimed at “eliminating” a Hamas leader.

This bombing left dozens dead and hundreds injured, according to the Hamas Ministry of Health. In an AFPTV video, it was possible to count at least 47 bodies draped in shrouds lying on the ground in the courtyard of a hospital after being extracted from the rubble.

“It was an earthquake scene,” camp resident Ragheb Aqel, 41, told AFP.

On Wednesday, Hamas claimed that seven hostages “including three holders of foreign passports” had been killed in this bombing.

The Israeli army, for its part, confirmed on Tuesday that it had successfully targeted Ibrahim Biari, presented as one of those responsible for the October 7 attack, who was in “a vast complex of underground tunnels from where he directed operations”.

“A large number of terrorists who were with Biari were killed,” said Jonathan Conricus, spokesperson for the Israeli forces.

“Mediation Efforts”

Saudi Arabia condemned “in the strongest possible terms” the bombing of Jabaliya. Qatar, involved in attempts to resolve the hostage crisis, denounced “a new massacre” and warned against operations likely to “undermine mediation efforts”.

Bolivia announced that it would break its diplomatic relations with Israel, to denounce “its offensive […] disproportionate,” according to her. Chile and Colombia have announced that they are recalling their ambassadors to Tel Aviv.

The war has also exacerbated tensions in the occupied West Bank, where at least 125 Palestinians have been killed since October 7 by fire from Israeli soldiers or settlers, according to the Palestinian Authority Health Ministry.

As warnings multiply against a regional conflagration, the Houthi rebels in Yemen, close to Iran, launched several missiles against Israel on Tuesday – which the Israeli army announced having intercepted – and promised to continue their attacks.