The News Freedom
Chandigarh, November 1
At least 320 foreign passport holders have crossed to Egypt from Gaza through the Rafah border crossing today according to Egyptian security sources and a Palestinian official. Another 76 injured people have been transferred into Egypt, The Guardian reported citing news agencies’ official sources.
The CBS News reports that the hundreds of foreign passport holders, including some Americans, and some of the wounded trapped in Gaza started leaving the war-torn territory on Wednesday as the Rafah border crossing to Egypt opened to them for the first time since the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel. A list of foreign passport holders who can leave Gaza via the Rafah crossing has been released by Gaza’s Hamas-controlled Interior Ministry, a report said.
The CBS News report said that at least five nongovernmental organization workers who have been confirmed as Americans are listed as approved to cross on Wednesday, but it remains to be seen how many of at least 400 American citizens the US State Department says are stuck in Gaza will be able to cross in coming days. Two U.S. officials confirmed to CBS News that several Americans have been able to leave Gaza on Wednesday and that more are expected to depart in the coming days.
One American trapped in Gaza told CBS News she does not expect to cross yet. “They started letting foreigners out today but it’s not Americans because I guess we’re not as important as we thought,” Utah resident Susan Beseiso told CBS News on Wednesday. “It’s like they’re holding us hostages — not Hamas holding us hostages, it’s the IDF soldiers, Egypt and America. They’re using us as a human shield in a way.” Beseiso said.
Beseiso has told CBS News that the State Department has since sent her guidance that says that the US government “has reliable information that limited departures from Gaza may begin this week. US citizens and family members will be assigned specific departure dates to ensure an orderly crossing.”
Footage showed the gate of the crossing on the Palestinian side of the border being opened Wednesday morning as people began to cross into Egypt for the first time since the war began. Convoys of desperately needed aid have previously passed between Egypt and Gaza but no people had been allowed through the Rafah crossing up until now, according to the CBS News.