RAFAH: Around 500 foreigners and dual nationals, as well as several wounded Palestin­ians, were evacuated from the Israeli-bombed Gaza Strip to Egypt on Sunday, reports from both sides of the border said.

Some “500 foreign nationals from 15 different countries entered Egypt,” an Egyptian security official said.

AlQahera News, an outlet close to the Egyptian intelligence services, reported the crossing of an additional “seven wounded Palestinians” through the terminal.

Rafah is the only crossing out of Gaza not controlled by Israel, and had been closed on Friday and Saturday.

Over 70 Russian, 18 Polish citizens evacuated from coastal enclave

The border authority of the Hamas government in Gaza had called late Saturday for “all foreign passport holders and people on evacuation lists” to report to the terminal, located at the southern tip of the Gaza Strip and leading to Egypt’s Sinai.

Since November 1, several wounded Palestinians have been evacuated to Egyptian hospitals, with hundreds of dual nationals and foreigners, including Americans, French, Russians and Poles, also leaving through Rafah.

In addition, Russia has evacuated over 70 of citizen from the Gaza strip, the country’s emergency services said on Sunday, after Moscow denounced the long waiting time this week.

The foreign ministry had said on Thursday it was “shocked” by Israeli officials saying it could take up to two weeks to evacuate Russian citizen — with around 500 Russians wanting to leave.

“Seventy citizen crossed the Rafah crossing,” the Russian emergency services said. The ministry published footage of staff welcoming evacuees, some of them crying, and providing them with basic necessities.

Israel’s envoy to Moscow told Russian state media this week that with 500-600 people leaving each day, and 7,000 waiting to be evacuated, it could take two weeks to get Russian citizens out of Gaza.

Meanwhile, the head of Poland’s National Bureau of Security Jacek Siewiera said: “The first Polish citizens staying in the Gaza Strip crossed the border crossing in Rafah and are on the Egyptian side. The process has begun,” Siewiera said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

“Air Force as ordered by Polish president are ready to carry out transport.” Siewiera later said in a phone interview at the Rafah crossing was opened on Sunday morning, enabling the departure of 18 Polish citizens, including minors.

He said that he hoped that at least several more Polish citizens would be able to cross later in the day, and after that the group would be transported to a hotel in Cairo to wait for a military aircraft to fly them to Poland.

The breakthrough in efforts to evacuate Poles was due to the role played by Qatar and Israel, and the involvement of Egypt which controls the crossing, Siewiera added.

Published in Dawn, November 13th, 2023