First Civilian Convoy Evacuates Gaza Through Egypt's

Rafah Border Crossing

foreignpolicy.com/2023/11/01/israel-gaza-civilian-evacuations-egypt-rafah-border-crossing-aid-hamas-bolivia

Alexandra Sharp

World Brief
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First Civilian Convoy Evacuates Gaza

But Israel faces diplomatic backlash in Latin America for refusing

calls for a cease-fire.

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By Alexandra Sharp, the World Brief writer at Foreign Policy.

People enter the Rafah border crossing in the southern Gaza Strip.
People enter the Rafah border crossing in the southern Gaza Strip before
crossing into Egypt on Nov. 1. Mohammed Abed/AFP via Getty Images

November 1, 2023, 7:00 PM

Israel-Hamas War

News, analysis, and background on the ongoing conflict.

More on this topic

Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at the first civilian
evacuees out of Gaza, North Korean embassy closures, and an AI
safety summit in the United Kingdom.

Aid In, People Out

The first wave of civilian evacuees left Gaza on Wednesday via Egypt’s
Rafah border crossing. Ambulances transported more than 300 foreign
nationals and around 80 critically wounded Palestinians into northern
Egypt, where they first underwent strict security checks before being
admitted to al-Arish hospital. Qatar helped negotiate their release,
further cementing its role as a prime mediator in the Israel-Hamas war.

According to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), military officials

submitted a list of 500 foreign nationals for evacuation, but Hamas
pushed back against the proposed number. Around 6,000 foreigners
remain trapped in Gaza, including as many as 600 U.S. citizens.

Until now, Egypt’s Rafah border crossing has exclusively been used to
transport aid into Gaza since the conflict began. Twenty trucks carrying
food, water, and medical supplies entered the region on Wednesday,
bringing the total since the war began to more than 160 convoys.
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres, however, has
called this number “completely inadequate and not commensurate with
the needs of people in Gaza.”

The humanitarian crisis is expected to worsen as Israel continues its

ground offensive into Gaza City. The region’s largest
telecommunications provider lost all phone and internet services on
Wednesday—Gaza’s second near-total communications blackout in a
week.

Since the war began on Oct. 7, more than 8,500 Palestinians have
been killed and more than 21,500 others injured, the Hamas-run Gaza
Health Ministry said. That includes the fatalities from an Israeli airstrike
on the Jabalia refugee camp on Tuesday that killed more than 50
Palestinians and a Hamas commander, the IDF said. Hamas militants
put the casualty count at around 400 people. Around 1,400 Israelis
have been killed thus far.

International calls for a cease-fire are coming with harsher

consequences. Following the refugee camp attack, Bolivia cut
diplomatic ties with Israel, its second time doing so over Israeli
operations in Gaza in the past 15 years. It’s among the first nations to
make such a drastic policy change.

Hamas quickly endorsed Bolivia’s actions and called for other nations
to follow its lead, pointing fingers at majority-Muslim nations that
recently normalized relations with Israel, including the United Arab
Emirates, Bahrain, and Morocco. Meanwhile, Chile and Colombia
recalled their ambassadors to Israel, and Mexico and Brazil reiterated
demands for a humanitarian pause in fighting. Chile, in particular, has
the largest Palestinian community outside of the Middle East.

Today’s Most Read

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What We’re Following

Growing isolationism. North Korea announced on Wednesday that it

will shutter nearly a quarter of its embassies around the world in a
historic tightening for the Hermit Kingdom’s already isolated global
status. Pyongyang signaled that the missions it will close in the near
future include those in Spain, Hong Kong, Uganda, and Angola,
bringing its total number of foreign offices to 49 diplomatic missions.

According to South Korea’s unification ministry, North Korea’s embassy

closures highlight Pyongyang’s struggles to afford overseas operations.
Western sanctions have curtailed funding for the autocracy’s nuclear
and missile programs as well as weakened the nation’s economic
standing.

Bletchley Park takes on AI. Britain kicked off a major artificial

intelligence summit on Wednesday. World leaders—including U.S. Vice
President Kamala Harris, European Commission President Ursula von
der Leyen, and Chinese Technology Vice Minister Wu Zhaohui—
attended the two-day gathering at Bletchley Park, where the U.K.’s top
World War II codebreakers worked. The summit marks British Prime
Minister Rishi Sunak’s largest effort yet to cement London’s role as a
global leader in AI safety.

At this week’s meeting, tech executives and industry experts will

discuss threats posed by AI and safety measures that governments
can take to limit human rights abuses, such as infringements on
privacy. Sunak has also hinted that he will propose a global advisory
board, modeled after the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change, to regulate AI. The summit continues a week of major AI
regulation efforts after U.S. President Joe Biden signed an executive
order on Monday requiring greater transparency in AI development.
Myanmar sanctions. The United States, Canada, and the United
Kingdom imposed new sanctions against Myanmar’s ruling junta,
known as the Tatmadaw, on Tuesday in a trilateral effort to curtail
human rights violations. The U.S. Treasury Department targeted the
Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise, the Tatmadaw’s main source of
revenue. Ottawa banned insurance for any person or ship involved in
transporting aviation fuel into Myanmar. And London announced a new
sanctions package on the junta’s arms dealers and financiers.

“These actions signal to the people of Myanmar that they have not
been forgotten,” said Tom Andrews, the U.N. special rapporteur on the
human rights situation in Myanmar, “but there is much more that the
international community can and must do.” That must include rejecting
the Tatmadaw’s legitimacy, he argued in January.

Odds and Ends

Litterers in Tokyo faced the wrath of samurai trash collectors on

Wednesday. The garbage tong-wielding swordsmen, known as
Gomihiroi Samurai, picked up Halloween candy wrappers, empty beer
cans, and cigarette butts to draw attention to the city’s trash problem
following a night of spooky festivities. Noble work, indeed, for some of
Japan’s most revered warriors.
Alexandra Sharp is the World Brief writer at Foreign Policy.
Twitter: @AlexandraSSharp

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