The Gaza Strip’s border with Egypt remains closed this Saturday (11) due to intense fighting around the region’s largest hospital, Al-Shifa. As a result, the group of 34 people under the responsibility of Itamaraty in the region continues to be detained, and has already been authorized to leave.
With Israel’s military action intensifying in the hospital area, which had around 80,000 refugees and patients until Friday (10), ambulances with serious injuries, Egypt’s priority for reception, did not leave for the border in Rafah. This Saturday (11), the spokesperson for the Gaza Ministry of Health stated that Al-Shifa suspended the operation due to lack of fuel. As a result, one newborn died and 39 others are in danger.
Without medical evacuation, according to Cairo’s understanding, there is currently no exit for foreigners and people with dual citizenship from Gaza. The day before, the day Egypt finally gave permission for the Brazilians to leave, the fighting was joined by an episode in which members of the Palestinian group Hamas tried to flee Gaza as ambulance drivers.
The Egyptian government controls the gates of Rafah, but authorization is a complex process in which Israel has veto power, given the need for coordination and the risk of terrorist evasion, as well as consultation with the mediators of the US and Qatar exit arrangement. .
Hamas, which has governed Gaza since 2007, was responsible for the October 7 mega-attack against the Jewish State, which triggered the current conflict. Tel Aviv is under intense pressure, including from its main ally, the United States, regarding the proportionality of its retaliation.
So far, there have been around 11,000 deaths in Gaza, according to Hamas data usually accepted by international entities. Israel revised the number of victims of the attacks a month ago to 1,200, and around 240 people are still kidnapped in the hands of terrorists.
Despite this, its ground operation in the region is now focused around Al-Shifa and other hospital centers that Tel Aviv says Hamas uses to house military commands and weapons depots. The group, whose use of civilian installations as shields is a well-known tactic, denies this.
The Brazilians wait to leave at a house close to the border — one of the group members, Hasan Rabee, returned to Khan Yunis, 10 km from Rafah. He, who has his daughter and wife authorized to leave, has family there.
When the group leaves, it will be attended to by a team of doctors, nurses and psychologists sent by Brazil in a VC-2 plane, the version operated by the Air Force for the Presidency of the Embraer-190. The aircraft is in Cairo and, when the Brazilians leave, it will be repatriated.
Leaving, which according to Chancellor Mauro Vieira is undefined, they will have to take a bus for five hours to Cairo, where the aircraft was, or take a shorter trip to the Al Arish base, where the VC-2 is authorized to fly. land. From one of the points, they will go to Rome, Las Palmas, Recife and, finally, Brasília.
