No wounded Palestinians, foreigners or dual nationals were allowed to cross from the Gaza Strip into Egypt via the Rafah crossing on Wednesday, as expedited evacuations were halted for the second time since November 1, a Palestinian official said.

The crossing, the only exit from the Gaza Strip not controlled by Israel, remained closed due to the refusal of Israeli authorities to approve the list of wounded that were to be delivered by Hamas authorities to Egyptian territory, an official told AFP. responsible for border crossings in the enclave.

The outpost also remained closed on November 3 and 4 for the same reason.

As the day before, an AFP journalist saw yesterday morning many people flocking to the area where the crossing is located, hoping that they would be able to cross into Egypt.

“The situation in Gaza is horrific,” explained Mazen Danaf, one of the people who went to the area, who has Palestinian and German citizenships. “We don’t have electricity, water, fuel, hospitals are overwhelmed, things are very difficult,” he explained.

The Rafah crossing reopened on November 1 to allow foreigners and dual nationals barred from the small Palestinian enclave to leave, which is being besieged and pounded by the Israeli military in retaliation for an attack by Hamas militants on Israeli soil on the 7th. October.

After three days of it remaining open, allowing dozens of wounded Palestinians and hundreds of foreign passport holders to flee, Hamas closed the checkpoint for two days before reopening it.

Agence France-Presse sources in Hamas had explained that Israel refused to transfer to Egypt many wounded whose names were included in a list forwarded to the Egyptian authorities.

The Israeli army confirmed that on November 3 it hit an ambulance in front of Shifa Hospital, the largest in the Gaza Strip. He claimed that it was “used by a terrorist cell of Hamas”. This bombing killed 15 people and injured 60 others, according to the Hamas government’s health ministry.

The targeted vehicle was part of a convoy of ambulances preparing to transport wounded people at the Rafah crossing to Egyptian hospitals, the health ministry added.