VIDEO: Hundreds of wounded Gazans enter Rafah crossing after border reopens

Hundreds of wounded Gaza residents and foreigners streamed into the border crossing with Egypt on Wednesday, the first people set to escape the shattered Palestinian territory in more than three weeks of devastating war with Israel.

According to a report in the Independent, up to 500 foreign passport holders will pass the Rafah border crossing from Gaza to Egypt after Qatar mediated an agreement between Cairo, Israel and Hamas in coordination with the US to allow for the movement of foreign passport holders and Palestinians severely injured in Gaza.

The country will also take in 81 wounded people from the besieged Gaza Strip and treat them in its hospitals, Gaza’s General Authority for Crossings and Borders told the New York Times.

It is not clear how long the Rafah border crossing will remain open for evacuation.

AFP images showed whole families carrying their belongings and several injured people in wheelchairs and ambulances entering the heavily fortified gates at the Rafah border crossing -- the only one not controlled by Israel.

"We are overwhelmed... Have mercy on us. We are Egyptians and can't cross into our country," Umm Yussef, a dual Palestinian-Egyptian national, told AFP on the Gaza side.

"Let us in. We are exhausted. We can't sleep or eat."

A woman helps a child drink water from a bottle waiting to enter the Rafah border crossing with Egypt. AFP

Egypt announced that the most badly wounded, foreigners, and dual nationals could flee Gaza, which has suffered weeks of relentless bombardment by Israel.

'An earthquake' 

The border opening with Egypt provided the first glimmer of hope in the flaring humanitarian crisis in Gaza which the UN and other aid agencies have described as "unprecedented".

A strike on Gaza's largest refugee camp killed at least 47 people on Tuesday -- including a Hamas commander involved in the October 7 attacks, according to Israel.

A large explosion ripped through the densely packed Jabalia camp before nightfall, tearing facades off nearby buildings and leaving a deep, debris-littered crater.

AFP witnessed at least 47 corpses being recovered.

Palestinians walk at the Rafah border crossing with Egypt in Rafah, Gaza Strip, on Wednesday. Reuters

Horrified resident Ragheb Aqal, 41, likened the explosion to "an earthquake" and spoke of seeing "homes buried under the rubble and body parts and martyrs and wounded in huge numbers".

Israel said its warplanes had struck a "vast" tunnel complex at the site, killing "many Hamas terrorists", including local battalion commander Ibrahim Biari.

'We are overwhelmed... Have mercy on us. We are Egyptians and can't cross into our country,' Umm Yussef, a dual Palestinian-Egyptian national, told AFP on the Gaza side. 'Let us in. We are exhausted. We can't sleep or eat.'

But the strike sparked a chorus of condemnation from Qatar, Saudi Arabia and also further afield in Bolivia, which cut off diplomatic ties in protest – a decision Israel labelled "surrender to terrorism".

Gaza residents run out of food, fuel and hope

The Palestinian telecommunications agency said on Wednesday that phone and internet services had "been completely cut off in Gaza", the second such blackout in a week.

Palestinians with dual citizenship walk at the Rafah border crossing with Egypt on Wednesday. Reuters

Palestinian residents told AFP they had evacuated from northern Gaza, as demanded by Israel, but they were still under threat.

"We've been told people are evacuating from Gaza City towards the central area of the Strip beyond the valley, so we headed there. After 20 days, we were bombarded. Three of our kids lost their lives and we all got injured," Amen Al Aqlouk told AFP.

"There is no hope in the Gaza Strip. It is not safe anymore here. When the border opens, everybody will leave and emigrate. We encounter death every day, 24 hours a day."