Egypt prevents foreigners from leaving Gaza unless 'agreement is reached with Israel'

The Egyptian authorities on Saturday prevented dozens of foreigners and Palestinians with international passports from leaving the besieged Gaza Strip through the Rafah border crossing unless an agreement with Israel is reached, Palestinian security sources said. 

Speaking to The New Arab, the sources, who preferred to referred to remain anonymous said that "the Egyptian ban came because of anger with Israel, which denied to allow to humanitarian aid to enter Gaza."

As a result, the sources said, the Egyptian authorities did not issue any official instructions regarding allowing foreigners to leave the Gaza Strip.

In an interview with Sky News, ex-PM of #Israel Naftali Bennett defended collective punishment of civilians in Gaza, saying, “We're fighting Nazis!” Over 2.2 million people are trapped in #gaza #palestine #gazaunderattack

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The sources added that hundreds of foreigners, some of whom hold American citizenship, waited for long hours in front of the crossing gate, but then returned back to the Gaza Strip, which has been under relentless Israeli bombardment and siege for a week.

The Ministry of Interior in Gaza evacuated its security forces from the Rafah crossing last Tuesday after being informed by the Egyptian side of threats to bomb it by Israel.

Israeli aircraft launched two raids on the area separating the Palestinian and Egyptian sides of the crossing on the ninth and tenth of this month, and two Palestinian work crews were reported injured at that time.

The Israeli bombardment has so far killed 2,200 people, nearly 40% of them children.

The Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement on Thursday however that the Rafah crossing was open for business and has not been closed at any stage since the beginning of the current crisis, although it acknowledged that basic facilities on the Palestinian side were destroyed as a result of the Israeli bombing. 

Israel has imposed a "total siege" on the Gaza Strip, preventing all supplies of electricity, fuel, water, and basic materials to the territory's 2.3 million inhabitants

This began after Hamas launched an unprecedented attack against Israel under the name "Al-Aqsa Flood" on 7 October.  The Israeli army's resulting Operation "Iron Swords" has been unprecedented in ferocity and scale, targeting civilian areas and reducing entire districts to rubble.

The United Nations has expressed its "deep concern" about the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip and demanded an immediate cessation of hostilities.