361 Foreigners Evacuated from Gaza to Egypt
- AP Photo/Fatima Shbair.
Tokyo – As many as 360 foreign passport holders were evacuated from the Gaza Strip to Egypt on Wednesday, according to local media, as Israeli bombardments of the area intensified in the war against the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa said on Thursday in Tokyo that all 10 Japanese nationals and their eight family members who were hoping to leave the Hamas-ruled, Israeli-besieged Palestinian enclave have arrived in Egypt by land.
Truk-truk bermuatan bantuan kemanusiaan bersiap memasuki Gaza di sisi Mesir dari perbatasan Rafah yang menyeberang dengan Gaza pada 21 Oktober 2023.
- Antara Photo/Xinhua/Ahmed Gomaa.
Egyptian state media and others reported that 361 foreign passport holders and 46 wounded left Gaza for Egypt through the Rafah crossing, in the first large-scale evacuation from the area since Hamas' October 7 surprise attack that triggered air strikes and other military measures in response from Israel.
Five Japanese citizens, including personnel of the United Nations and international aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres, are on the Gaza authorities' list of evacuees.
The aid group, also known by its English name Doctors Without Borders, said that all of its foreign staff members including three Japanese citizens have passed through the Rafah crossing.
The Gaza authorities said the crossing in southern Gaza will also open on Friday. Some 500 foreign nationals have been allowed to leave the strip, according to media reports.
The Israel-Hamas conflict has so far left over 10,000 people, mostly in Gaza, dead.
Konflik Israel-Palestina
- (AP Photo/Yousef Masoud)
In the latest move, the Israeli military admitted it conducted air strikes on Jabalya refugee camp in northern Gaza for the second straight day. The Gaza authorities said 195 were killed and 120 are missing.
The United Nations human rights office said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, that the air raids are "disproportionate attacks that could amount to war crimes," given the scale of the damage.
In Tokyo, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno told a press conference Thursday that one Japanese citizen living in Gaza with his family, with whom the government has kept in touch, does not want to leave.
"Japan will continue communicating with related nations to ensure the safety of its nationals, while making every diplomatic effort toward settling the situation at an early date and easing the humanitarian crisis," the top government spokesman said.
Kamikawa, who has announced a four-day tour of Israel and Jordan from Thursday, will also visit Ramallah in the West Bank for a meeting with Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Malki, her ministry said.
