Watch: Wounded Gazans, foreign evacuees cross into Egypt under new agreement

Ambulances rushed wounded Palestinians out of Gaza for urgent medical care in Egypt on Wednesday, with hundreds of desperate foreign passport holders also poised to flee the territory devastated by three weeks of war with Israel.

The evacuation of the first people to escape war-torn Gaza provided a rare glimmer of hope in an otherwise desolate humanitarian crisis, with more than 8,500 killed in Israeli bombing, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

AFP reporters saw a phalanx of 40 white ambulances streaming through the Rafah border crossing, as crowds of foreign and dual national families gathered nearby, hoping to leave the catastrophic conditions of Gaza behind them.

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At least two children were seen in the ambulances, one with a large bandage wrapped around his stomach, as medics examined the wounded and transferred them to stretchers.

"We are overwhelmed... Have mercy on us. We are Egyptians and can't cross into our country," Umm Yussef, a dual Palestinian-Egyptian national, told AFP on the Gaza side.

"Let us in. We are exhausted. We can't sleep or eat."

Here's a video of a convoy of ambulances crossing the Rafah border:

AFPTV images also showed whole families, struggling to carry their worldly possessions, rushing through the heavily fortified crossing towards Egypt, which was expected to take at least 400 refugees and 90 of the most badly wounded and sick.

Here's a video showing the first batch of people who were able to enter the border:

Qatar-mediated deal

Qatar has mediated an agreement between Egypt, Israel and Hamas, in coordination with the US, to allow for the movement of foreign passport holders and some critically injured people out of besieged Gaza, a source briefed on deal told Reuters on Wednesday.

• Gaza now a 'graveyard' for thousands of children, says UN