Rafah opens to let the first group of Spaniards leave Gaza: 33 Spanish-Palestinians and 7 family members are already waiting to return to Spain

It has taken more than five weeks, but finally the Spaniards in Gaza are now in safe territory. More than 40 people left this Monday in the first group of Spanish-Palestinians who had been waiting for weeks on the border with Egypt. Although they were expected to leave through the Rafah crossing in early November, the logistics of the evacuations and the obstacles of the countries involved had delayed a complex operation that seems closer to completion.

“The first Spanish-Palestinians have crossed the double checkpoint. One Palestinian and then one Egyptian,” said the acting Spanish Foreign Minister, José Manuel Albares, this Monday.. Of the 40 who left this Monday, there are “33 Hispanic-Palestinians and 7 family members” and priority has been given to “families with very young children and elderly people in vulnerable situations,” the minister acknowledged.. Likewise, Albares has confirmed that he has already received authorization from Israel for another contingent to leave this Tuesday with 80 more people.. In total, between Spaniards and family members, close to 200 people are expected to leave in the coming days.

One of those who has already left is Amelia Julia Sayans, a 70-year-old Spanish woman married to a Gazan.. “We were very bad, there was no gas, water or food, the food that is left is getting worse” and there are “bombings everywhere,” he explained to EFE.. Although Sayans signed up to cross with her children, she has had to cross alone, who remain sheltered in the apartment of a family that welcomed them in Khan Yunis, a town in the south of Gaza.. Her husband stayed in the north, whom she acknowledges that she “could not convince” and that he preferred to “stay and wait to pick up what was in the rubble” of their house in the north.

Kamal Ukasha, a fifty-year-old Palestinian ophthalmologist with Spanish citizenship, also managed to leave this Monday, along with his wife and six children. “We will look for a place to work in Spain,” he acknowledged to the EFE correspondent. “It had a private medical center and it was completely destroyed at the beginning of the war,” said Ukasha, who lived in a town north of the Strip.. “On the way from Jabalia to Gaza City, in general you see everything destroyed, and in Gaza City the same,” he added.

Regarding the complexity of the operation, Albares has acknowledged that throughout these weeks he has been “in contact” with his counterparts from Israel and Egypt.. “We have already spoken with the Ministry of Defense so that their planes come at the right time to transport these Spanish-Palestinians to Spain,” said the acting minister.. It was precisely the acting Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles, who last week recognized that the operation was not simple. Robles then commented that the delay was due to a problem with the conflict situation itself, “since bombings had occurred and priority was being given to the wounded.”. “They are making a kind of appeal that can be in alphabetical order of countries,” said the minister.

As the Spaniards leave Gaza, they will be transferred by bus to Cairo along with staff from the Spanish Embassy.. From the Egyptian capital it is expected that an Air Force plane will take them to Spain. At the moment the exact day on which they will land in Spanish territory is unknown.

The humanitarian situation is critical

As Palestinians with dual nationality try to escape, more than 2 million remain trapped in Gaza. Israel's offensive, especially in the north of the enclave, continues to advance street by street and the bombings continue to number in the hundreds every day. And with it, the worsening of the humanitarian situation denounced by United Nations agencies and NGOs.

This Monday, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) confirmed that its medical team at the largest hospital in the Strip, Al Shifa, is willing to abandon it “if there are guarantees that the patients will be evacuated first.” An MSF surgeon who works at the hospital has indicated that in front of the main door there are “dead bodies and wounded people” and has reported that there are sniper attacks against “ambulances and patients who are trying to flee.” “We don't have electricity. There is no water in the hospital. There's no food. “People who depend on respirators will die within hours if they remain turned off,” he said. According to the spokesman for the Gaza Health Ministry, controlled by Hamas, at least 32 people have died due to a lack of power in the last three days.. Including three premature babies.

For its part, Israel insists that hospital centers are being used as a hiding place for members of the Islamist organization Hamas. The Israeli Army reported this Monday that its troops in Gaza City were attacked by “a terrorist squad hiding among a group of civilians at the entrance to a hospital,” so they responded by killing 21 Palestinians. The Jewish State has asked Gazan citizens to leave the north of the enclave towards the south. Which has not stopped the bombing from continuing.. This Monday at least 40 people were killed in an Israeli attack on the southern town of Bani Suhaila. And in the north, in the Jabalia refugee camp, at least 30 people have been killed in another bombing, according to the Palestinian news agency WAFA.

Since Hamas attacked Israeli soil on October 7, leaving more than 1,400 dead and 240 kidnapped, Tel Aviv's bombings of Gaza have been constant.. Five weeks after the start of the conflict, more than 11,200 people have been killed and 29,000 injured as a result of these attacks, according to Hamas.