الخميس, نوفمبر 2nd 2023
Seven Swiss nationals had left the Gaza Strip for Egypt by Thursday afternoon. Six of them are dual nationals. This was announced by Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis on X (formerly Twitter). He expressed relief.
At the Rafah border crossing, employees of the Swiss Embassy in Cairo received the emigrants, the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) said in response to a request from the Keystone-SDA news agency. Embassy staff looked after them as part of consular protection.
As far as the FDFA knows, there is still one Palestinian with Swiss citizenship in the Gaza Strip waiting to leave. Four dual citizens decided to stay there for the time being.
On Thursday, 400 foreigners and Palestinians with dual citizenship left Rafah Gaza Strip, according to the Egyptian Red Crescent. According to the information, another 200 people with foreign passports were scheduled to leave the same day.
According to a list, in addition to Swiss nationals, among those who have already left on Thursday are mostly US-Americans. In addition, there were people from Italy, Greece, the Netherlands, Belgium, Hungary, Croatia, Mexico, South Korea and other countries.
In the transit area, they were completing formalities for entering Egypt, said Raed Abdel Nasser, secretary general of the Egyptian Red Crescent in North Sinai. The Palestinian Border Authority had ordered them to wait at the crossing.
In the embattled Gaza Strip, according to Egyptian data, about 7000 foreign nationals are waiting to leave. For the first time on Wednesday, hundreds of foreigners and Palestinians with second passports were able to leave the area sealed off by Israel. Injured Palestinians were also taken to Egyptian hospitals.
Israel is launching a massive attack on targets in the Gaza Strip following the devastating Hamas terror attack on October 7 and has sealed off the densely populated coastal strip. The United Nations speaks of a worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Some 1.4 million people have been displaced by the fighting inside Gaza.
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