Rafah border crossing opens, Gaza comms go down again
Some 80 wounded Palestinians and a selected 400 foreign nationals or dual passport holders will be allowed to pass through the Rafah border crossing to go into Egypt from Gaza, Al Jazeera reported.
The Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt is open to civilians evacuating Gaza for the first time since the violence broke out there on Oct 7.
Some 80 wounded Palestinians and a selected 400 foreign nationals or dual passport holders will be allowed to pass through the Rafah border crossing to go into Egypt from Gaza, Al Jazeera reported.
The names of those allowed to cross were published by the Gaza Borders and Crossings Authority - while the foreign nationals were also informed by their embassies by phone, it reported.
Aid trucks are also waiting to enter Gaza through the crossing, while ambulances have entered Egypt from Gaza, the broadcaster said.
UK Foreign Minister James Cleverly said, "UK teams are ready to assist British nationals as soon as they are able to leave”.
"It is vital that life-saving humanitarian aid can enter Gaza as quickly as possible," he said on X, previously known as Twitter.
This comes as PalTel, the telecommunications provider in Palestine said communications services have gone down again in Gaza, causing more distress in an already desperate situation in the besieged strip.
Last week, PalTel workers managed to restore the service after repairing telecommunications infrastructure damaged in airstrikes.
Egypt urged to turn on roaming service
The latest outage has prompted the Palestinian communications minister to appeal to Egypt to activate roaming services on Egyptian networks.
Earlier this week, following an agreement between Palestinian and Egyptian authorities, Vodafone Egypt said it can provide mobile stations on the border to restore internet in Gaza.
Separately, two hospitals in Gaza - the Indonesian Hospital and al-Shifa Hospital - are hours away from running out of fuel, the Palestinian health official says.
Israel has not allowed any fuel to enter the strip, even on humanitarian grounds, citing hoarding by Hamas.
Yesterday, Indonesian Hospital director Atef al-Kahlout told Al Jazeera that resources and space are severely limited in the hospital.
“We perform surgeries on the ground and without anaesthesia,” he said.
There is also a severe shortage of water, food and medicines with only a limited number of trucks allowed in to bring aid, via Egypt.
More than 8,000 Palestinians and more than 1,400 Israelis have been killed in the latest round of violence since Oct 7. They include more than 3,000 children.
