Belgian Foreign Minister Hadja Lahbib has said that she expects "some" Belgian nationals to be evacuated from Gaza to Egypt on Thursday.
In an interview with RTL, Lahbib said that the Foreign Ministry had provided Egypt with the names of 177 Belgian citizens and close relatives "who have been screened [and] verified" by the Belgian authorities.
She also noted that the Federal Government had "an agreement with the competent authorities on the spot", including Egypt, to allow those individuals to leave.
"According to the information we have at the moment, we are quite positive: some could come out today," Lahbib said.
Hadja Lahbib. Credit: Belga / Nicolas Maeterlinck
"But I am careful, because the conditions are difficult on the ground," she added. "Yesterday, it was announced that 500 foreign nationals could leave, and in the end there were only about 300."
Lahbib also stated that the Federal Government had "strengthened" its embassy in Egypt and that its staff members "are ready to welcome" those fleeing the besieged territory.
Echoing Lahbib's remarks, Development Minister Caroline Gennez said on Thursday morning that she also believed more Belgians would leave Gaza "today and in the coming days".
'It feels wrong to leave'
Wednesday marked the first time that residents of Gaza have been permitted to leave since 7 October, when Hamas, the group which controls the Palestinian territory, carried out a bloody terror attack in Israel.
Under the terms of the Qatar-brokered deal, 355 foreign passport holders and 76 severely wounded Palestinians were allowed to pass through Gaza's Rafah border crossing with Egypt on Wednesday. Several hundred more are expected to be evacuated on Thursday.
The Egyptian Foreign Ministry has reported that a total of 7,000 foreign passport holders from over 60 different countries currently want to leave the enclave. They include citizens of Greece, Mexico, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and the US, as well as Belgium.
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Matthias Kennes, the head of Doctors Without Borders in Gaza, was the only Belgian citizen who was successfully evacuated on Wednesday.
In an interview with VRT, Kennes spoke of his harrowing experiences over the past few weeks and his guilt at having abandoned his colleagues and patients.
"It feels wrong to leave here," he said. "But we have not been able to carry out our work here properly in the last few days. Our task was still mainly to bring supplies of medical material to the right people, but we often had to take shelter due to the many bombings. We felt useless."
More than 1,500 Israelis and 8,700 Palestinians have been killed since 7 October. The figures from the Hamas-run health ministry cannot be independently verified.
