Hundreds of wounded, foreigners hope to flee war-torn Gaza

GAZA CITY - Hundreds more wounded and foreign passports holders hoped to escape war-torn Gaza on Thursday as Israeli forces bombed and fought intense ground battles with Hamas militants in the besieged Palestinian territory.

Ambulances were set to rush several dozen patients to Egyptian hospitals, and about 400 foreigners or dual nationals were expected to escape as the southern Rafah crossing was to open for a second day, said border officials on both sides.

Egypt said that eventually it hoped to help evacuate 7,000 foreigners from more than 60 countries from the densely crowded territory of 2.4 million people that has endured weeks of sustained bombardment.

ntense ground battles flared again overnight in northern Gaza as Israel has sought to destroy Hamas over the bloody October 7 attacks, the worst in the country's 75-year-history, which it says claimed 1,400 lives.

The Israeli army, which is also seeking to free around 240 hostages, said it had killed "dozens" of enemy forces as "terrorist cells in the northern Gaza Strip fired anti-tank missiles, detonated explosive devices and hurled grenades".

"The soldiers engaged with the terrorists, with the assistance of artillery fire and tanks, while directing an aerial strike from a helicopter and a missile strike from a naval boat."

The UN's top human rights body Wednesday decried "the high number of civilian casualties" and the massive scale of destruction and voiced "serious concerns that these are disproportionate attacks that could amount to war crimes".

A total of 227 aid trucks have entered under a US-brokered deal, according to the United Nation's humanitarian agency OCHA, an amount aid groups say falls far short of the desperate need.

Special concern has focused on repeated heavy strikes on Gaza's largest refugee camp -- densely populated Jabalia north of Gaza City -- where explosions brought down residential buildings and left giant craters on Tuesday and Wednesday.