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Efforts to allow hundreds of foreign passport holders trapped in Gaza to leave the besieged territory have stalled because of a dispute between Hamas and Egypt over the positioning of UN monitors, according to diplomats.
Western governments have been working to ensure safe passage from Gaza for foreign nationals and Palestinians with dual citizenship through its Rafah crossing with Egypt ever since Israel launched its bombardment of the Hamas-controlled strip more than three weeks ago.
Egypt had agreed to assist in the process, but wanted the UN to manage the evacuation of foreign passport holders from the hemmed-in coastal enclave, three western diplomats said.
But the process became deadlocked over the location of UN officials — Cairo insists they should be on the side of Gaza’s border controlled by Hamas, but the Palestinian militant group wants them stationed on the Egyptian side.
“That’s frustrating for everyone,” said a western diplomat.
However, a person briefed on the talks said a deal to break the deadlock and allow foreign nationals, and some critically wounded Palestinians, to leave through Rafah was “close”.
Qatar has been mediating between Hamas, Egypt and Israel to secure an agreement.
Another person briefed on the discussions said that from Cairo’s perspective there was no point in deploying monitors to the Egyptian side because its reason for asking the UN to manage the process was to ensure an orderly flow of people through Rafah.
US secretary of state Antony Blinken on Tuesday said finding a way to help the 500-600 US citizens trapped in Gaza leave the strip was a top priority that continued to be stifled by Hamas.
“This is something we’re working on every single day,” he said while testifying in support of US President Joe Biden’s $105bn supplementary budget request for Israel and Ukraine. “To date the impediment has been Hamas.”
Itayi Viriri, a spokesperson for the International Organization for Migration, told the Financial Times that several member states had reached out to the UN agency “requesting support in the evacuation of hundreds of foreign nationals from Gaza”.
He added: “The safety and wellbeing of civilians remains of utmost priority, and we stand ready to extend all possible humanitarian efforts to support the needs of all those affected, under safety guarantees and through the wider UN umbrella, in full respect of human rights and international law.”
It is not known how many foreigners are in Gaza but there are believed to be dozens of aid workers and hundreds of Palestinians with dual nationality.
The Rafah crossing into Egypt is the only exit and entry point into Gaza not controlled by Israel. But Cairo has said it will not accept a flood of refugees into the country.
President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi worries that the longer Israel’s offensive continues, the more pressure will mount on Egypt to accept large numbers of refugees into Sinai, a sparsely populated and arid peninsula with a history of instability.
Sisi has stated he fears any displacement of Palestinians from Gaza into Egypt would become permanent.
Israel has laid siege to Gaza and bombarded the strip by air, land and sea since Hamas’s October 7 attack, which killed more than 1,400 people, according to Israeli officials. The Islamist militant group also seized more than 230 hostages and took them to Gaza.
As Israel stepped up its offensive, it ordered more than 1mn people — about half Gaza’s population — to move from the densely populated north to the enclave’s south. This week, Israeli tanks and troops have moved deeper into northern areas in what Benjamin Netanyahu, the country’s prime minister, has described as a new, expansive phase of the war.
More than 8,500 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli bombardment of the strip, according to the Palestinian health ministry in Gaza, and the UN has warned of a humanitarian catastrophe as the territory faces dire shortages of food, water and fuel.
Additional reporting by Henry Foy in Brussels
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