KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip (AP) — Palestinians gathered Tuesday on both sides of Gaza’s border with Egypt, hoping to get through the Rafah crossing after its reopening the previous day was marred by delays and uncertainty over who would be allowed to cross.
On the Egyptian side were Palestinians who had fled to Egypt earlier in the Israel-Hamas war and undergone medical treatment there, according to Egypt’s state-run Al-Qahera News television. On the Gaza side, Palestinians in need of treatment unavailable in Gaza were brought in buses by the Palestinian Red Crescent from the agency's headquarters in the territory, hoping for word that they would be allowed to cross the other way.
Though hailed as a step forward for the fragile ceasefire struck in October, on the first day Rafah reopened, it took more than 10 hours for only about a dozen returnees and a small group of medical evacuees to cross in each direction.
The numbers fell short of the 50 people that officials had said would be allowed each way and barely began to address the need: tens of thousands of Palestinians are hoping to be evacuated for treatment or to return home.
The import of humanitarian aid or goods through Rafah remains prohibited.
Pressure to address needs
Evacuation efforts on Tuesday morning converged around a Red Crescent hospital in Khan Younis, where a World Health Organization team arrived and a vehicle carrying patients and their relatives rolled in from another hospital. Then the group of WHO vehicles and Palestinian ambulances headed toward Rafah to await crossing.
As the sick, wounded and displaced waited to cross in both directions, health officials said the small number allowed to exit paled beside Gaza's tremendous needs. Two years of fighting destroyed much of its medical infrastructure and left hospitals struggling to treat trauma injuries, amputations and chronic conditions like cancer.
In Gaza City, Shifa Hospital director Mohamed Abu Selmiya called the pace “crisis management, not a solution to the crisis," imploring Israel to permit the importing of medical supplies and equipment.
Until then, he wrote on Facebook, “Denying the evacuation of patients and preventing the entry of medicines is a death sentence for them.”
Palestinian Red Crescent spokesperson Raed al-Nims told The Associated Press that only 16 patients with chronic conditions or war wounds, accompanied by 40 relatives, were brought from Khan Younis to the Gaza side of Rafah on Tuesday — far less than the 45 patients and wounded the Red Crescent was told would be allowed.
After days of anticipation over the reopening, hope lingered that it might mark a meaningful first step. In Khan Younis, Iman Rashwan waited for hours until her mother and sister returned from Egypt, hoping others would soon see their loved ones again.
“God willing, the crossing will open for everyone, for all the sick and for all the wounded," she said.
Waiting on both sides
Officials say the number of crossings could gradually increase if the system works, with Israel and Egypt vetting those allowed in and out. But security concerns and bureaucratic snags quickly tempered expectations raised by officials who for weeks had cast reopening as a major step in the ceasefire deal.
On Monday, things got bogged down in disagreements over luggage allowances. Returnees were carrying more than anticipated with them, requiring additional negotiations, a person familiar with the situation told the AP, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the diplomatic matter.
“They didn’t let us cross with anything,” Rotana Al-Regeb said as she returned around midnight Monday to Khan Younis. “They emptied everything before letting us through. We were only allowed to take the clothes on our backs and one bag per person."
The initial number of Palestinians allowed to cross is mostly symbolic. Israeli and Egyptian officials have said that 50 medical evacuees would depart — along with two caretaker escorts — and 50 Palestinians who left during the war would return.
At that pace, long waits are facing most of the roughly 20,000 sick and wounded people who Gaza’s Health Ministry has said need treatment abroad. About 150 hospitals across Egypt are ready to receive patients, authorities said.
Who and what would be allowed through Rafah was a central concern for both Israel and Egypt. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that anyone who wants to leave will eventually be permitted to do so, but Egypt has repeatedly said the Rafah crossing must open in both directions, fearing Israel could use it to push Palestinians out of Gaza.
A 19-year-old killed in southern Gaza
Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis said Ahmed Abdel-Al, 19, was shot and killed by Israeli troops on Tuesday morning in a part of the southern Gaza city, some distance away from the area under the Israeli military's control.
Israel's military said it wasn't immediately aware of any shootings in the area.
Abdel-Al was the latest of the 529 Palestinians killed by Israeli fire since the Oct. 10 start of the ceasefire, according to Gaza's Health Ministry. They are among more than 71,800 Palestinians killed since the start of the war, according to the ministry, which does not distinguish between fighters and civilians. The ministry, part of Gaza’s Hamas-led government, keeps detailed casualty records that are seen as generally reliable by U.N. agencies and independent experts.
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Magdy reported from Cairo. Associated Press writers Josef Federman and Sam Metz in Jerusalem contributed to this report.
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