The New York Times: Hamas, disguised as refugees, tried to take wounded militants to Egypt

Efforts to open the Rafah crossing on the Gaza Strip's border with Egypt were briefly paralyzed by Hamas' attempts to remove its wounded fighters from the enclave. A spokesman for US President Joe Biden's administration told The New York Times.

As the publication notes, almost from the beginning of the escalation of the conflict in the Middle East, American officials involved in the opening of the checkpoint stated that Hamas was obstructing efforts to open the checkpoint by putting forward “unreasonable demands.”

Now the source of The New York Times explained that the movement has repeatedly provided Israel, the United States and Egypt with lists of wounded Palestinians for evacuation from Gaza along with refugees and foreigners. However, the audit showed, the official claims, that many of the people on the Hamas list were militants. In particular, about a third of the wounded Palestinians on the first list were Hamas terrorists. As a result, the movement gave in to its demands, and the parties agreed on a list of Palestinians to leave Gaza.

The newspaper's interlocutor noted that negotiations on the evacuation of refugees and foreigners were conducted with Hamas through representatives of Qatar, who have long maintained contacts with the Palestinian movement. Egypt, which is trying to avoid the influx of terrorists into its territories, was most concerned about the prospect of militants leaving Gaza.

Negotiations with Hamas and Israel over the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza were also difficult, the official said. Now, he said, about 100 trucks carrying humanitarian aid are expected to enter the enclave every day.

• The Rafah crossing is the only border crossing from the Gaza Strip that is not controlled by Israel. Two more checkpoints in the Gaza Strip - Erez and Kerem Shalom - enter Israeli territory and do not work. On November 1, almost a month after the conflict between Israel and Hamas escalated, Rafah was opened.
• On November 4, CNN, citing a source among US officials , reported that Hamas blocked the exit of foreign citizens from Gaza, demanding Israeli guarantees that ambulances from the Palestinian enclave could reach the checkpoint. The demand came after the IDF hit one of the ambulances, claiming it was carrying Hamas militants. More than 700 foreign nationals were expected to leave the Gaza Strip on Saturday.