Relief for Gaza evacuees, frustration for those blocked at Rafah crossing
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00:00 We're going to go back now to Edouard Cousin in Cairo to talk about those evacuees coming
00:04 out of Gaza into Egypt.
00:06 Edouard, Egypt says it will evacuate some 7,000 foreign nationals and dual citizens
00:13 in all.
00:14 Yeah.
00:15 Today, Ed, it is said that like it's expected that around 400 foreign and dual nationals
00:21 from Gaza would go into Egypt, plus 6,200 Palestinian injured to be treated in hospitals
00:29 in Egypt.
00:30 And indeed, Egypt says eventually 7,000 foreign nationals would be evacuated from Gaza into
00:37 Egypt.
00:38 That is something they've told foreign ambassadors.
00:39 And how it works, that like yesterday, there was a list published with names, with specific
00:45 names of the people that would be allowed to cross into Egypt.
00:48 The list had like 500-something names.
00:50 Today, there was another list published this early morning with people that would be allowed
00:55 to leave with 400 Americans on this list and a few hundred other nationalities.
01:01 So it seems every day there's a specific number, a specific number of people that can evacuate.
01:07 And Egypt says, yeah, in the end, 7,000 foreign nationals would be allowed to leave.
01:12 So yeah, that expects us that every day we will see like such a list being published
01:17 with names until it reaches this number of 7,000.
01:20 Edouard, this is talking about foreigners and dual nationals.
01:24 What about other Palestinians?
01:27 Will they be able to evacuate through the border?
01:30 Well, Egypt, yeah, that's something that has high stakes for Egypt.
01:36 Egypt says like, we want to treat injured.
01:39 We want to leave foreign nationals out.
01:40 We want to leave aid into Gaza.
01:42 But we don't want to allow a large number of Palestinian refugees in.
01:47 So they don't want to open the border in general to leave, to let Palestinians leave Gaza and
01:54 massive numbers.
01:55 And they say that will basically allow Israel to forcibly displace Palestinians from Gaza
02:03 into Egypt.
02:04 That would create permanent refugee camps in Egypt of Palestinians that would not be
02:08 allowed to return back to Gaza.
02:10 And they say that's something we cannot go along with.
02:13 That would end the Palestinian cause, the Palestinian state in Palestine.
02:17 That would cause security problems, economic problems, social problems in Egypt.
02:23 So hey, yes, injured, yes, foreign nationals, no to large numbers of Palestinian refugees.
02:29 That's the stance of Egypt.
02:30 All right, Edouard, thanks so much for that.
02:32 Edouard Coussaint, reporting for us from Cairo.