Photos: Rafah crossing opens for foreign passport holders and wounded to exit Gaza

Seventy-six wounded Palestinians and 335 foreigners or dual-nationals were allowed to cross from the war-torn Gaza Strip for Egypt on Wednesday, an Egyptian official at the Rafah crossing said.

It is the first crossing of civilians allowed into Egypt from Gaza since Israel placed a "total siege" on the Palestinian territory after Hamas's deadly attack on October 7.

By 4:30 pm (1430 GMT), ambulances had transported 76 wounded Palestinians into Egypt and six buses took 335 foreign passport holders, the official told AFP, who was reached by phone in Ismailia.

The Egyptian authorities had said they would allow 90 wounded Palestinians and around 545 foreigners and dual nationals to cross on Wednesday.

An injured man lies inside an ambulance waiting at the Rafah border crossing in the southern Gaza Strip before receiving medical care in Egypt.

Scores of foreign passport holders started leaving war-torn Gaza on Wednesday after Egypt opened the Rafah crossing for the first time since the Israel-Hamas war began on October 7, AFP correspondents said.

It was not immediately clear how many people managed to leave via Rafah on Gaza’s southern border with Egypt, but live footage from the scene showed crowds of people entering the Palestinian side of the terminal.

Foreign governments say there are passport holders from 44 countries, as well as 28 agencies, including UN bodies, living in the Gaza Strip where 2.4 million people have endured more than three weeks of unrelenting Israeli bombardment in response to the October 7 Hamas attacks.

Palestinian children with dual citizenship wait outside the Rafah border crossing with Egypt.

The tiny coastal territory has also suffered “catastrophic” shortages of food, water and electricity following an almost total Israeli blockade in response to the attacks, the worst in Israel’s history, that killed 1,400 people, mostly civilians.

According to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza, more than 8,500 people have been killed in the bombardments, two-thirds of them women and children.

A man pushes a child on a wheelchair as people enter the Rafah border crossing in the southern Gaza Strip before crossing into Egypt on November 1, 2023.

Separately, Egypt said a first group of 81 seriously sick or wounded Palestinians would be allowed in to Egypt for medical treatment on Wednesday, with television channels close to the Egyptian intelligence services broadcasting live images of a fleet of ambulances entering the terminal.

The decision to open the crossing came hours after an Israeli strike on the largest refugee camp in Gaza.

Palestinian health ministry ambulances cross the gate to enter the Rafah border crossing in the southern Gaza Strip before crossing into Egypt. Scores of foreign passport holders trapped in Gaza started leaving the war-torn Palestinian territory on November 1 when the Rafah crossing to Egypt was opened up for the first time since the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel.

Medical workers wait to take injured Palestinians who will receive treatment in Egyptian hospitals, at the Rafah border crossing with Egypt.