AhlulBayt News Agency: The sixth group of wounded and ill Palestinians left the Gaza Strip on Sunday morning through the Rafah border crossing to receive medical treatment abroad, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent.
Buses carrying the patients departed from the Red Crescent headquarters in Khan Yunis, traveled to the Rafah terminal, and then crossed into Egypt.
The evacuation took place under the supervision of World Health Organization officials, who oversaw the safe transfer of the patients into Egyptian territory.
Meanwhile, Egypt’s state-run Al-Qahera News reported that another group of Palestinian travelers arrived at the Egyptian side of the crossing on Sunday morning to return to Gaza, though no further details were provided.
Palestinians who returned during the first days of the crossing’s reopening described long delays and invasive searches by Israeli soldiers and armed members of the Israeli-backed Abu Shabab militia.
Although the Rafah crossing is officially administered by a European Union mission alongside Palestinian Authority personnel, the Israeli army operates a screening facility nearby where Palestinians are subjected to additional coercive checks.
The crossing reopened on February 2 as part of a fragile ceasefire agreement that halted Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza. However, Israeli obstruction forced the closure of the crossing on Friday and Saturday.
Under the current arrangements coordinated among Israeli, Egyptian, Palestinian, and international officials, only 50 people are allowed to return to Gaza daily, while 50 patients—each accompanied by two relatives—are permitted to leave. Yet the actual number of travelers has been far lower than expected.
Today, Gaza’s healthcare system continues to operate under catastrophic conditions, following Israel’s destruction of hospitals and clinics and its severe restrictions on medical and fuel supplies entering the Strip.
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