GENEVA: The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said a humanitarian convoy came under fire in Gaza City on Tuesday but was able to deliver medical supplies to Al Shifa hospital.
Two trucks were damaged and a driver was lightly wounded, the organisation said.
It said the convoy included five trucks and two ICRC vehicles and was carrying “lifesaving medical supplies to health facilities including to Al Quds hospital of the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, when it was hit by fire.”
The group did not identify the source of the fire.
After the incident, the convoy altered its route and reached Al Shifa hospital where it delivered the medical supplies, ICRC said. The ICRC convoy then accompanied six ambulances with critically wounded patients to the Rafah crossing from Gaza to Egypt, the group said.
“These are not the conditions under which humanitarian personnel can work,” said William Schomburg, head of the ICRC sub-delegation in Gaza. “Ensuring that vital aid can reach medical facilities is a legal obligation under international humanitarian law.”
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ICRC, a neutral organisation based in Geneva, has escorted patients and transported freed hostages out of Gaza.
The number of evacuees leaving the Gaza Strip through Egypt rose on Tuesday, a day after the Rafah border crossing was re-opened.
At least 500 people, most of them foreigners or dual nationals and their dependents passed through Rafah, the only crossing that does not border Israel, Egyptian security sources said.
Evacuations through the crossing were suspended on Saturday and Sunday after an Israeli strike on an ambulance that was heading to Rafah. Egyptian security sources said Egypt was continuing to press for increased aid and fuel into the strip and security for ambulances.
Jordan’s foreign ministry said 262 Jordanians were evacuated on Tuesday, out of a total of 569 that had been stuck in Gaza following the outbreak of fighting there.
Canada said 59 of its citizens, permanent residents and family members were evacuated.
Nineteen Gazans needing medical treatment were also allowed through, a medical source said, to join dozens of others who are being treated in Egyptian hospitals.
Other countries with citizens cleared to leave on Tuesday included Romania, Germany, Moldova, Ukraine, the Philippines and France, according to the Gaza border authority.
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