About 7,000 foreign passport holders from 60 countries have left the Gaza Strip, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry said on Thursday.

The ministry invited representatives of foreign embassies to a meeting in Cairo to provide information about the documents required to be allowed into Egypt from the war-torn Palestinian territory.

It was unclear whether the 7,000 were only foreign nationals or also Palestinians with a second passport. It is also unclear whether there are other foreigners in Gaza who do not want to leave.

Earlier on Wednesday, hundreds of foreign nationals and Palestinians with dual nationality left Gaza and entered Egypt for the first time since the war broke out between Israel and Hamas.

Some critically injured Palestinians were also transferred to Egypt through the Rafah crossing for treatment.

The Palestinian Red Crescent said on Wednesday night that they had received 55 more trucks of humanitarian aid, bringing the total to 272, yet still a trickle of what relief workers say is needed.

Israel sealed off the Gaza Strip and began pounding the densely populated area with airstrikes. 

They carried out a terrorist attack on Israeli communities on October 7 that left more than 1,400 people dead.

Some 240 others were taken hostage and held in Gaza.

The Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza has said that 8,796 people have been killed in Gaza since the war began and 22,219 have been injured.

(NAN)