THE FIRST British people have crossed the border from Gaza into Egypt – while others have been turned away.
The Foreign Office confirmed that British nationals used the Rafah border crossing last night, but did not say how many.
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500 holders of foreign passports will cross the Rafah border
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An Israeli army helicopter fires flares over the Gaza StripCredit: AFP
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500 foreign passport holders are poised to flee Gaza as Israel continues its ground invasion of the besieged enclaveCredit: AFP
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Hundreds are waiting to cross the border after it opened for the first time since the attack
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British nationals will be among those fleeing across the Rafah border into Egypt, which has been largely closed since the outbreak of war but reopened this morningCredit: Getty
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Israeli forces are pushing Hamas terrorists back into the region as they advance a ground invasion
“We will continue to work with partners to ensure the crossings reopen, allowing vital aid to Gaza and more British nationals to leave safely,” the statement said.
The crossing will be open in controlled and time-limited periods to allow the exit of certain groups of foreign nationals and seriously wounded persons.
Hundreds of desperate foreign nationals managed to pour into Egypt through the southern checkpoint, which opened on Thursday for the first time since the deadly October 7 attacks.
Rishi Sunak previously said that around 200 British nationals trapped in Gaza had contacted the Foreign Office in an urgent plea for help before the Israeli ground invasion.
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Up to 500 foreign passport holders were expected to flee through the crossing, though not all may have made it.
And 81 injured civilians in Gaza will also be allowed to enter Egypt to receive medical care, Sky reports.
One family who tried to cross for the third time with a disabled 15-year-old boy told the BBC that his “seizures got worse and worse” as the war progressed.
After the hospital ran out of the medicine he needed, the family tried to cross the border to get to safety, but now they are trapped at the crossing.
“We’re trying to survive. We’re not sure if we’re going to make it, but we’re trying to do everything we can to survive because I just don’t want to die at 24,” his sister said.
It came after Hamas issued a chilling new threat to the hostages, saying they would face the same fate as civilians in Gaza.
The terror group’s leader, Ismail Haniyeh, said the Israeli hostages would suffer the same “death and destruction” that the Palestinians faced.
In a recorded video message, he accused Israel of committing “barbaric massacres of unarmed civilians”, saying it was covering up its own “defeats”.
The Rafah crossing, the only route out of Gaza not under Israeli control, has been opened in a key move to allow 500 captured foreigners to escape the hellish battlefield.
At least 320 foreign passport holders used the crossing to evacuate Gaza on Wednesday, three Egyptian security sources and a Palestinian official said.
Teacher Zaynab al Wandawi from Manchester, who traveled to Gaza with her family days before the October 7 attack, told Sky News she was now stuck and “running out of supplies”.
In a telephone conversation near the border crossing, she said: “We went to the border, they told us that they will not release British and American passports yet.
“They said to try again tomorrow.”
Her distraught mother Lalah Ali Faten told the Telegraph her daughter was “distraught” and “feels abandoned by the British government”.
Another Briton, Mohammed Ghalayini, 44, told the newspaper that he had gone to the border but that “there was no hope of getting through today and I came back”.
UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said earlier that there was “no certainty” about the escape of British citizens from Gaza.
Mr Cleverly said, “everything is difficult and uncertain and we have to be realistic about it”.
“We talked extensively with Egypt and of course with Israel and through intermediaries [and] we sent messages to Hamas,” he added.
“It is not easy and there is no security, but we will not stop until we do what we can to help British citizens in Gaza.”
It comes as…
On Wednesday, the Foreign Secretary announced that Britons would be able to leave via a crossing that was only briefly open to food and aid trucks.
Cleverly said: “British teams are ready to assist British nationals as soon as they are able to leave.
“It is important that life-saving humanitarian aid can enter Gaza as soon as possible.”
Another threat from a Hamas official was made earlier this week, when Ghazi Hamad told the Lebanese news outlet LBCI that “Israel is a country that has no place on our land.”
“We have to remove that country,” he said, according to a translation by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).
“We must teach Israel a lesson and we will do so again and again.
“The flood of Al-Aqsa is only the first time, and there will be a second, third, fourth. Because we have the determination… to fight.”
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IDF vehicles advance in Gaza as their tanks reach the city Credit: Reuters
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Israel claimed to have destroyed a Hamas stronghold on Tuesday when they attacked the refugee camp Credit: Reuters
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The Rafah border (pictured) is the only route from Gaza that Israel does not control
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Palestinians with foreign passports at the Rafah border wait to cross into Egypt as Israeli airstrikes continueCredit: Getty
Israeli forces claim to have destroyed 11,000 Hamas targets in the region since the start of the war as their ground invasion continues.
Recent days have seen Israel crack down on the Gaza Strip as the IDF expands its ground operation inside the enclave, which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned will be “long and difficult.”
A total of 15 soldiers were killed in the battle, the IDF confirmed.
The two latest victims are Staff Sgt. Itay Yehuda, 20, member of the Givati brigade and staff sergeant. Shay Arvas, 20, with the Tzabar unit of the Givati brigade.
And on Monday, Israel’s military claimed to have downed 600 terror targets in a 24-hour firestorm as it pushed back Hamas.
The footage shows tanks and troops storming the enclave as Israel also wipes out the front of Hamas’ navy in their “second phase” of the war.
The IDF, whose tanks reached Gaza City, said it destroyed a Hamas “terrorist stronghold” on Tuesday night when they attacked the refugee camp.
Hamas said an Israeli airstrike killed more than 50 people in the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza.
The IDF claimed it was being used as a hideout base for Hamas terrorists and said they killed 50 militants in the blast.
The commander of Hamas’ central Jabaliya battalion, Ibrahim Biari, was killed in the attack, they added.
Israeli forces claimed that Biari was one of the Hamas leaders responsible for sending militants to carry out the deadly attacks in Israel on October 7.
Photos from Tuesday’s explosion show neighborhoods reduced to rubble and streets in ruins after the explosion.
Onlookers covered in dust from the remains of collapsed buildings are shown digging through bricks and pulling bodies from the rubble.
“More than 50 martyrs and around 150 wounded and dozens under rubble, in a heinous Israeli massacre that targeted a large area of homes in the Jabalia camp in the northern Strip,” the Gaza health ministry said in a statement on the attack.
Hamas estimated yesterday that the number of dead in Gaza to date is 8,796.
However, previous Hamas claims about the death toll caused by Israeli strikes have been widely questioned.
Earlier this month, Hamas claimed that an Israeli airstrike on a hospital in Gaza killed 500 civilians in Gaza.
But Israel hit back with furious denials of both the death toll and the cause of the blast – insisting the devastation was the result of a rocket misfired by Hamas allies Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
Israel then released its evidence after strongly denying responsibility for the catastrophic explosion at Al-Ahli Hospital.
Two Hamas operatives were reportedly recorded saying the rocket was fired by another Palestinian terrorist group, Islamic Jihad.
Meanwhile, footage broadcast on Israeli TV showed a rocket being fired at the hospital from the Gaza Strip.
Israel’s claims have been supported by US President Joe Biden and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, and the high death toll has been widely disputed.
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Not all who will be allowed to leave Gaza may leave Credit: AFP
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Israel continues its bombardment of the besieged territory, which Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has warned will be ‘long and difficult’Credit: AFP
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Some reports suggest that not all of the 500 foreign nationals expected to flee via the Rafah crossing may not be able to get outCredit: AFP
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Ambulances carrying people wounded in the Israeli bombing of Gaza arrived at the border crossing with EgyptCredit: AP
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White body bags line the streets after an attack in northern Gaza on TuesdayCredit: Getty
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Some Palestinian citizens will also be able to flee to Egypt via the Rafah borderCredit: AP
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Israeli soldiers patrol the Gaza Strip amid its ground invasionCredit: IDF
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