Report: Hamas tried to bring injured members out of Gaza Strip
The radical Islamic group Hamas is said to have attempted to bring its own fighters out of the Gaza Strip along with wounded people, foreigners and dual nationals. This was reported by the Israeli newspaper "Haaretz", citing an unnamed US official.
The high-ranking official said that Hamas had tried to smuggle its own people out of the Gaza Strip in ambulances via Rafah, thus delaying the evacuation of foreign nationals. Hamas had sent Egypt and the USA a list of the seriously wounded, whom it wanted to evacuate along with thousands of foreigners who wanted to leave the Gaza Strip.
US and Egyptian officials discovered that a third of the names were Hamas fighters. However, none of the 76 wounded Palestinians who were eventually evacuated were Hamas fighters.
Efforts for a ceasefire
The release of two US hostages from the Gaza Strip earlier this month served as a "pilot project" for the ongoing negotiations to free more hostages, the official also said. "This is an active process with multiple efforts" that is "incredibly difficult, complex and time-consuming."
Any agreement would require "a fairly significant pause in hostilities", the official said, echoing US President Joe Biden's administration's support for "temporary and localized" humanitarian ceasefires. However, Israel had recently rejected a corresponding proposal by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu named the release of "our hostages" as a condition for such a ceasefire.
The Rafah border crossing was opened on Wednesday for the first time since the beginning of the war for foreigners and people with dual citizenship as well as the injured. Hundreds of people have since been able to leave the embattled area.
- Despite the ongoing efforts for a ceasefire, tensions between Israel and Hamas continued, with reports suggesting that Hamas attempted to use ambulances at the Rafah border to smuggle its fighters out of the Gaza Strip, delaying the evacuation of foreign nationals.
- The USA and Egypt expressed concern over Hamas's actions during the Israel-Gaza war, as a US official revealed that a third of the Palestinians on a list Hamas submitted for evacuation were actually Hamas fighters, despite none of them being among the eventually evacuated wounded.
Source: www.ntv.de
