Arya News - The Rafah restrictions come as Israel kills at least 10 Palestinians, including two children, in attacks across Gaza.
The evacuation of Palestinian patients and wounded via the Rafah crossing has been suspended for today, a spokesperson for the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) has told Al Jazeera, adding that Israel informed the organisation about the move on Wednesday morning.
“Unfortunately, a few minutes ago, we were… informed that the evacuation process of today has been cancelled,” Raed al-Nims told Al Jazeera from Khan Younis in Gaza.
He said that the procedure should have seen sick and wounded people arrive at the Red Cross Society hospital for preliminary medical checkups before being transferred by ambulance to the Rafah crossing, then to Egyptian hospitals or elsewhere.
Only five Palestinian were permitted to leave for Egypt on Monday and only 16 on Tuesday – numbers far below the 50 Palestinians who Israeli officials said would be allowed to leave via the crossing daily.
Israel agreed to open the key crossing – the Gaza Strip’s only gateway to the outside world – after weeks of delay, but has placed restrictions on the movement of people through the crossing.
Only Palestinians who left Gaza during the war, and have passed strict security vetting from Israeli authorities, are being permitted to return.
Those who have recently returned have described being blindfolded, handcuffed, interrogated and sexually harassed as they made the trip.
More than 18,000 Palestinian patients are also awaiting medical evacuations through the crossing, including about 440 critical cases that need immediate attention, Gaza health officials say.
Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum said Israel was not giving any explanation as to why some Palestinians were being denied permission to leave or return to the Strip.
Uptick in attacks
The restrictions on the crossing come as Israel killed at least 10 Palestinians across Gaza overnight, in the latest uptick in violence despite a supposed “ceasefire agreement” in effect since October.
Among the casualties were a number of children, medical sources said on Wednesday.
The dead included seven people killed by Israeli shelling in Gaza City neighbourhoods, an Al Jazeera team on the ground reported.
Four people were killed in the Tuffah neighbourhood, and three others in the neighbourhood of Zeitoun, with two children among those killed in those attacks, an ambulance source told Al Jazeera.
In further attacks in the south of the Strip, at least three people were killed in Israeli shelling of displaced people’s tents in the Qizan Abu Rashwan area, south of Khan Younis, an Al Jazeera team reported, citing medical sources.
Despite the US-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hamas that came into effect in October, Israel has continued to kill hundreds of Palestinians across the Strip.
On Tuesday, prior to the latest attacks, the Gaza Health Ministry said 529 Palestinians had been killed since the ceasefire, while 71,803 had been killed in Israeli attacks since the war began. Rights groups and a United Nations inquiry dubbed Israeli military actions a genocide. A case of genocide against Israel is under way at the International Court of Justice.
Reporting from Khan Younis, Al Jazeera’s Abu Azzoum said the attacks, despite the so-called “ceasefire” supposedly in place, had left Palestinians in Gaza “without any sense of respite”.
“There has been a surge in Israel’s military activities across Gaza in the past few hours,” he said.
“We can hear the … sound of Israeli drones hovering overhead, giving a sign of further potential attacks that might take place.”
Amid the latest attacks, Israel’s military said its armoured units and aircraft had conducted strikes in northern Gaza after a reserve officer came under fire, severely injuring him.
It said the injured officer had been evacuated to hospital after the incident, which took place “during routine operational activity” near the so-called “yellow line” demarcating areas under Israeli military control.
Abu Azzoum said Israel was moving the location of the “yellow line” in eastern Gaza, causing anxiety for residents there.
Palestinian killed in Jericho raid
While the killings have played out in Gaza, Israeli forces have also carried out attacks in the occupied West Bank.
Saeed Na’el al-Sheikh, a 24-year-old Palestinian man, was shot and killed by Israeli forces on Tuesday night during a raid on the city of Jericho, in the east of the occupied West Bank, Wafa news agency reported.
The Health Ministry said three other Palestinians were wounded.
Six more Palestinians were wounded in other attacks, including three who were shot, two who were beaten up by Israeli soldiers and a woman who was run over by a military vehicle.