Hamas accused Israel of undermining an agreement that allowed foreigners and dual-nationals to start leaving the Gaza Strip, risking a collapse of the deal as countries from the U.S. to U.K. race to get their citizens out of the besieged territory.
Osama Hamdan, the militant group’s representative in Lebanon, said in Beirut that Israel is targeting ambulances and blocking Palestinians wounded in Israeli airstrikes from seeking treatment in neighboring Egypt.
The Israeli military said its planes bombed an ambulance that was identified as being used by Hamas militants that was in a “battle zone,” while a U.S. official said Hamas had been trying to use the deal to evacuate some of its injured fighters.
Hundreds of foreigners and Palestinians with foreign passports were scheduled to cross from Gaza into Egypt this weekend. The deal that allows them to do so remains a rare instance of diplomatic progress in the current crisis since the Israel-Hamas war began last month.
But Hamdan’s comments mark the first public grievance brought forward by any of the parties since the evacuations began earlier this week. On Friday, a U.S. official familiar with the matter said the agreement’s implementation was delayed because Hamas tried to get some of its wounded fighters treated in Egypt through the arrangement.
The militant group, labeled a terrorist organization by the U.S. and the European Union, originally wanted injured civilians to be transferred to Egypt as a prerequisite, a demand the U.S. didn’t oppose, said the official, who asked not to be identified discussing sensitive issues.
But about one-third of the people put forward by Hamas were actually its fighters, which the U.S. didn’t consider viable, and the militant group ended up withdrawing those names, the official said.
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