The first group of wounded Palestinians set off from the Gaza Strip towards Egypt via the Rafah border crossing this morning (Wednesday), as part of a group of about 80 seriously wounded people.

Palestinian sources reported that the Rafah crossing was opened for dozens of Egyptian ambulances that entered the Gaza Strip to transport the wounded who needed treatment and surgeries that were difficult to perform in the Strip.

The Egyptian government has begun preparing private hospitals to receive the wounded in Sinai, in the hope that the rest of the seriously wounded, who number more than 3,000, will be allowed to leave Gaza for treatment, according to what the Palestinian Ministry of Health announced.

Meanwhile, hundreds of foreign and Arab nationals gathered near the Rafah crossing gate, waiting for them to leave the Gaza Strip, for hours this morning.

The Gaza Crossings Authority and Palestinian sources told Xinhua News Agency that about 500 holders of foreign and Arab nationalities will leave the Gaza Strip.

The exact timing of their exit was not known.

The sources said that the administration of the Gaza Crossings Authority will prepare lists for holders of foreign nationalities to pave the way for their exit.

This is the first time that the Rafah crossing has been opened for the exit of the wounded and those holding foreign nationalities from the Gaza Strip since the seventh of last October.
These developments coincided with the announcement by the spokesman for the Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, yesterday that it would release foreign hostages "in the coming days."