Tel Aviv/Cairo, 1 November 2023 (dpa/MIA) - A group of 285 foreign nationals and Palestinians with dual nationality have left the besieged Gaza Strip and entered Egypt for the first time since war broke out between Israel and Hamas, the Egyptian Red Crescent said on Wednesday.

Raed Abdel-Nasser, secretary general of the Egyptian Red Crescent in North Sinai, told dpa the group are part of the 525 people who were scheduled to leave from Gaza through the Rafah land crossing on Wednesday.

According to the Egyptian Red Crescent, nationals from Austria, Finland, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria as well as Japan, Australia and Indonesia were also there, alongside people from the neighbouring countries of Egypt, Jordan and Algeria. US and Canadian citizens are also believed to have gathered near the crossing.

A team from the German embassy in Egypt was preparing to take care of Germans who might leave the country, a spokesman for the German Foreign Office said. A low three-digit number of German citizens are still in the Gaza Strip.

According to dpa information, the foreign nationals were due to be taken to Cairo airport after crossing the border and continue their journey from there.

The respective embassies would organize transport to the airport, the TV channel al-Hadath reported.

The Egyptian Red Crescent also confirmed to dpa that "a new batch of wounded and injured Palestinians" was admitted to hospitals near the border in the afternoon.

According to a statement from the border authority in Gaza, 81 seriously injured people were expected to cross the border on Wednesday.

It is unclear how many foreigners and Palestinians with second passports are currently in the Gaza Strip and how many want to leave.

According to the US television channel CNN, apart from hostages held by Hamas, there are around 500 to 600 US citizens in the area.

Israel sealed off the Gaza Strip and began pounding the densely populated area with airstrikes after Hamas fighters carried out a terrorist attack on Israeli communities on October 7 that left over 1,400 people dead.

Hamas is seen as a terrorist group by the European Union and the United States.

The Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza has said that 8,796 people have been killed in Gaza since the war began and 22,219 have been injured.

Since Hamas militants violently seized control of the Gaza Strip in 2007, Israel has tightened a blockade of it, supported by Egypt. The government in Cairo is also concerned that a large number of Palestinian refugees could enter Egypt via Rafah.

Thirteen Israeli soldiers have been killed in fighting with the Islamist militant Hamas in the Gaza Strip, according to the army.

They were killed on Wednesday in the north of the sealed-off coastal strip, the military announced.

Two soldiers were killed in fighting on Tuesday, bringing the total to 15 soldiers killed since the army expanded the deployment of ground troops in the Gaza Strip.

Across Gaza meanwhile, phone and internet services were knocked out once again on Wednesday morning, the Palestinian Telecommunications Company, or Paltel, said.

The organization Netblocks, which monitors internet traffic, confirmed connections had been cut, while the Palestine Red Crescent Society said it had not been able to reach its Gaza staff for hours.

Paltel was the last major telecoms company still offering services in the territory.

Prior to the communications outage, photo and video footage from Jabalia in the north of the Gaza Strip showed the devastating consequences of an Israeli attack launched on Tuesday.

Huge craters and destroyed houses can be seen. According to Palestinian officials, many civilians are among the victims.

The Israeli army says that around 50 terrorists were killed in the attack on the Jabalia refugee camp, including Hamas commander Ibrahim Biari, who was reportedly involved in the massacres in the Israeli border area on October 7.

The German government pointed out the importance of proportionality in Israel's offensive in the Gaza Strip, following the attack on the Jabalia refugee camp.

"In Israel's legitimate defence against the terrorist organization Hamas and against its continued attacks, to which Israel is entitled under international law, the protection of the civilian population must also be paramount," a Foreign Office spokesman said in Berlin on Wednesday.

Irish Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Micheál Martin expressed concern after the attack on Jabalia: "Israel’s right to defend itself must be within the parameters of international humanitarian law," he said in a statement.

Iran strongly condemned the Israeli airstrikes on Jabalia, Turkish diplomats warned of a major regional conflict, and Jordan decided to recall its ambassador to Israel to condemn the Israeli war on Gaza.

Photo: dpa