Egypt on Sunday exceptionally opened the Rafah border crossing with the Gaza Strip in solidary with the Palestinian people to receive injured from the Gaza Strip.
A number of hospitals in North Sinai and Ismailia started gearing up and raising alert levels to receive and treat minor wounded Gazans while critical cases will be sent to other hospitals in Cairo.
The Egyptian Red Crescent said on Sunday that its teams were ready to receive the injured at any time, assuring that they are working around the clock.
The Rafah terminal is the only crossing point between Egypt and Gaza. The violent Israeli aggression on the Strip from May 7 to 16 has left 209 dead people, including 55 children and 33 women, in addition to 5,687 wounded persons.
Palestinian Ambassador in Cairo Diab Al-Louh announced that four teams were prepared to receive the wounded Palestinians at the North Sinai and Ismailia hospitals. He said Palestinian authorities were cooperating with the Egyptian Health Ministry and relevant authorities in this regard.
For his part, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said on Sunday that "concessions must be made in order to achieve peace".
Addressing the UN Security Council's virtual session on the crisis, Shoukry reiterated Cairo's call for an "immediate ceasefire" and urged the Security Council to "live up to its responsibility entrusted to it by the international community to solve the current crisis.”
Last Saturday, Shoukry received a phone call from his Pakistani counterpart, Shah Qureshi and the two sides reviewed ways to support efforts to reach a permanent and comprehensive solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict based on the principles of international legitimacy, on top of it is the establishment of an independent Palestinian state, with East Jerusalem as its capital.
According to Reuters, even before Sunday's reopening, Egypt had been picking up people wounded in Israeli bombardments at the crossing.
Egypt has so far sent 16 ambulances to pick up casualties, most of whom had suffered serious injuries that required immediate surgical procedures, medical sources said.
