The deal to release foreigners from Gaza to Egypt is not part of any potential agreement to secure the release of hostages held by Hamas, multiple sources stressed to CNN.
Those talks remain ongoing and a US official said he would caution against any comparisons between the two parallel missions.
But the reality is that the players involved in both negotiations are the same: Israel, Egypt, Qatar, Hamas and the USA.
However, as this North American official highlighted, the agreement announced this Wednesday (1st) does not include any component that could lead to the release of hostages at a later date, for example.
First wounded leave Gaza; departure of foreigners is also expected
The first group of injured crossed the border into Egypt and left the Gaza Strip in ambulances this Wednesday (1st), Local Egyptian media and a border source told Reuters. Around 500 people are expected to leave Palestinian territory.
Ten Egyptian ambulances are waiting to accommodate patients, he told CNN an Egyptian border official at the Rafah crossing. He had previously said that 80 ambulances were in the Gaza Strip. According to the official, 30 returned to Egypt empty, for undisclosed reasons.
Qatar brokered an agreement between Egypt, Israel and Hamas, in coordination with the US, to allow holders of foreign passports and seriously injured people to leave the Gaza Strip, a source told Reuters on Wednesday.
The Brazilian embassy in Palestine reported that the local authority published a list of foreigners who will be able to leave the territory, authorized by Egypt and Israel, and there are no Brazilians in this first wave. Brazilian diplomacy is trying to reach an agreement so that they can be on the next list.
According to the policy analyst at CNN Basília Rodrigues the Palestinian ambassador to Brazil said that Brazilians are not yet on the list of those who will be able to use the Rafah crossing as an escape route because the names have not been approved by the Israeli government.
Source: CNN Brasil
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