By Cairo correspondent:
Thousands of sick and wounded Palestinians are eagerly waiting to leave for urgent medical care abroad as Israel opens the Rafah border with Egypt for “limited” transfers.
The Rafah crossing – after being closed by Israel for nearly two years – will reportedly operate for six hours a day and allow the exit of only 150 people, with 50 individuals greenlighted to enter Gaza. Permission to return through the Rafah crossing is only being granted to those people who left Gaza during Israel’s genocidal war, either for medical treatment or due to temporary displacement.
We’ve got initial reports suggesting that 50 Palestinians are supposed to return today, but only after undergoing Israeli military security checks. Returnees’ families are still waiting in the vicinity of Nasser Hospital [in Khan Younis] to be reunited with their loved ones. But the process is being drawn out by the complexity of security tests. The general atmosphere here is filled with cautious hope for reunification, but also acknowledgment of the grim reality that the whole process is highly selective and being restricted by Israeli security measures.
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