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The rows of ambulances in Gaza started moving towards the border crossing into Egypt from Wednesday morning.

Inside were some of the most critically wounded from the recent Israeli onslaught on the territory and this was the first chance for anyone to escape the hell of what is happening in the Palestinian enclave.

In the emergency convoy, there were 76 people – among them women, the elderly and children.

The breakthrough comes after frantic discussions mediated by Qatar and the United States – and agreed by Egypt, Israel and Hamas.

We managed to get through to one doctor in Khan Younis in the south of Gaza, who’d had the difficult job of selecting 18 of his most seriously ill patients to make the crossing.

Israel airstrike on refugee camp ‘may be war crime’ – live updates

Sky's Alex Crawford spoke on the phone to Dr Youssuf Al Akkad, from the Gaza European Hospital
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Alex Crawford spoke on the phone to Dr Youssuf Al Akkad, from the Gaza European Hospital

Dr Youssuf Al Akkad, from the Gaza European Hospital, told us that his group was made up of 60% men and 40% women and included some children.

Most of the patients were suffering from brain injuries, spinal cord wounds and eye complications, and need specialist treatment that his hospital cannot provide.

“We are in a desperate state,” he said. “This is really a war on children, with most of the dead and injured made up mostly of women and children.”

He told us that his own hospital was in danger of running out of fuel supplies in a matter of days and he had at least a further 30 people who needed to be immediately taken across the border for medical help.

“We hope this will happen in the coming days,” he said.

Palestinian ambulances with people wounded in the Israeli bombing of the Gaza Strip arrive at the border crossing with Egypt 
Pic:AP
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Palestinian ambulances carrying injured people arrive at the border crossing with Egypt. Pic: AP

Egyptian ambulances convoy which will carry critically injured people waits to go through the Rafah crossing from the Egyptian side, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in Rafah, Egypt November 1, 2023. REUTERS/Stringer
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A convoy of Egyptian ambulances to take people out of Gaza at the Rafah crossing

The evacuation operation is being carried out under heightened security. We saw rows of tanks and military hardware on the Egyptian side on the route to the Rafah crossing when we were in the area.

The casualties are being taken to nearby hospitals in the north Sinai area, including Al Arish Hospital, and Egyptian state TV showed pictures of some of the wounded, including a young boy, being stretchered inside by medics.

The Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing was besieged by people, mostly foreign nationals, trying to escape the Israeli bombardment.

Read more:
Britons among hundreds of foreign nationals crossing border
What is the Rafah border crossing and who controls it?
How far has Israel got into Gaza?

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Ambulances carry injured Gazans into Egypt

Strikes on refugee camp continue

The evacuations were carried out amid continued Israeli airstrikes – including on the Jabalia refugee camp, the largest in Gaza – for the second day in a row.

Sky News verified the geolocation of pictures put out by Hamas which indicated the second day’s strike was inside the camp but in a different location to Tuesday’s attack.

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Jabalia refugee camp strike analysis

The images showed bloodied women and children as well as many men clambering over rubble, being pulled out of debris and carried into hospitals.

Israel says the refugee camp is a stronghold of Hamas fighters and commanders and announced it had lost 16 of its soldiers in combat over the past few days since its ground offensive into Gaza began.

Social media showed multiple pictures of Knesset members crying as they emerged from a meeting.

But amid the bombardment, a Hamas official said the hostages being held by them were under the same threat of death and injury that Palestinians are facing, and claimed an unspecified number of captives they were holding had already died in Israeli attacks.

Foreign nationals also starting to get out

At the Gaza-Egypt border, about 500 dual nationals have been put on a list approved by the five different governments involved for evacuation, as well as the wounded we saw earlier.

About 44 different nationalities – including some Britons – have been trapped inside Gaza since the 7 October atrocities mounted inside Israel by Hamas which saw more than 1,400 people killed and about 240 taken hostage.

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The UK Foreign Office confirmed British nationals were able to cross into Egypt but they declined to say how many.

The announcement that the crossing would be opened prompted crowds to surge towards the border point – now the only exit route possible since Israel imposed a siege on the territory, cutting off electricity and water and limiting aid trucks into the area.

For the second time in more than three weeks of bombardment, Palestinians also reported internet and mobile phone networks were interrupted as the border was opening.

Being desperate to get out is understandable.

But those who were not on the list were not allowed over.

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24 hours at the Rafah border crossing

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Dr Emilee Rauschenberger on trying to leave Gaza

They included a mother from Manchester called Emilee Rauschenberger who has been stranded inside Gaza with her five children after travelling there to visit relatives.

She said her children were aged between 14 and four years old.

“We had no electricity… the food we had to go and find each day, water stopped so there’s no sanitary water,” she told the Sky News crew in Gaza. “We had to go find the drinking water… it’s very difficult.”

The Egyptian authorities say the crossing will be opened for limited periods to allow those on the approved list to move into Egypt.

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Stock markets slump for second day running after Trump announces tariffs – in worst day for indexes since COVID

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Stock markets slump for second day running after Trump announces tariffs - in worst day for indexes since COVID

Worldwide stock markets have plummeted for the second day running as the fallout from Donald Trump’s global tariffs continues.

While European and Asian markets suffered notable falls, American indexes were the worst hit, with Wall Street closing to a sea of red on Friday following Thursday’s rout – the worst day in US markets since the COVID-19 pandemic.

As it happened: Worst week’s trading in five years

All three of the US’s major indexes were down by more than 5% at market close; The Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted 5.5%, the S&P 500 was 5.97% lower, and the Nasdaq Composite slipped 5.82%.

The Nasdaq was also 22% below its record-high set in December, which indicates a bear market.

Read more: What’s a bear market?

Ever since the US president announced the tariffs on Wednesday evening, analysts estimate that around $4.9trn (£3.8trn) has been wiped off the value of the global stock market.

More on Donald Trump

Mr Trump has remained unapologetic as the markets struggle, posting in all-caps on Truth Social before the markets closed that “only the weak will fail”.

The UK’s leading stock market, the FTSE 100, also suffered its worst daily drop in more than five years, closing 4.95% down, a level not seen since March 2020.

And the Japanese exchange Nikkei 225 dropped by 2.75% at end of trading, down 20% from its recent peak in July last year.

Pic: Reuters
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US indexes had the worst day of trading since the COVID-19 pandemic. Pic: Reuters

Trump holds trade deal talks – reports

It comes as a source told CNN that Mr Trump has been in discussions with Vietnamese, Indian and Israeli representatives to negotiate bespoke trade deals that could alleviate proposed tariffs on those countries before a deadline next week.

The source told the US broadcaster the talks were being held in advance of the reciprocal levies going into effect next week.

Vietnam faced one of the highest reciprocal tariffs announced by the US president this week, with 46% rates on imports. Israeli imports face a 17% rate, and Indian goods will be subject to 26% tariffs.

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Do Trump’s tariffs add up?

Read more:
Markets gave Trump a clear no-confidence vote
There were no winners from Trump’s tariff gameshow

China – hit with 34% tariffs on imported goods – has also announced it will issue its own levy of the same rate on US imports.

Mr Trump said China “played it wrong” and “panicked – the one thing they cannot afford to do” in another all-caps Truth Social post earlier on Friday.

Later, on Air Force One, the US president told reporters that “the beauty” of the tariffs is that they allow for negotiations, referencing talks with Chinese company ByteDance on the sale of social media app TikTok.

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Tariffs: Xi hits back at Trump

He said: “We have a situation with TikTok where China will probably say, ‘We’ll approve a deal, but will you do something on the tariffs?’

“The tariffs give us great power to negotiate. They always have.”

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Financial markets were always going to respond to Trump tariffs but they’re also battling with another problem

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Financial markets were always going to respond to Trump tariffs but they're also battling with another problem

Global financial markets gave a clear vote of no-confidence in President Trump’s economic policy.

The damage it will do is obvious: costs for companies will rise, hitting their earnings.

The consequences will ripple throughout the global economy, with economists now raising their expectations for a recession, not only in the US, but across the world.

Tariffs latest: FTSE 100 suffers biggest daily drop since COVID

Financial investors had been gradually re-calibrating their expectations of Donald Trump over the past few months.

Hopes that his actions may not match his rhetoric were dashed on Wednesday as he imposed sweeping tariffs on the US’ trading partners, ratcheting up protectionism to a level not seen in more than a century.

Markets were always going to respond to that but they are also battling with another problem: the lack of certainty when it comes to Trump.

More on Donald Trump

He is a capricious figure and we can only guess his next move. Will he row back? How far is he willing to negotiate and offer concessions?

Read more:
There were no winners from Trump’s tariff gameshow
Trade war sparks ‘$2.2trn’ global market sell-off

These are massive unknowns, which are piled on to uncertainty about how countries will respond.

China has already retaliated and Europe has indicated it will go further.

That will compound the problems for the global economy and undoubtedly send shivers through the markets.

Much is yet to be determined, but if there’s one thing markets hate, it’s uncertainty.

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Court confirms sacking of South Korean president who declared martial law

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Court confirms sacking of South Korean president who declared martial law

South Korea’s constitutional court has confirmed the dismissal of President Yoon Suk Yeol, who was impeached in December after declaring martial law.

His decision to send troops onto the streets led to the country’s worst political crisis in decades.

The court ruled to uphold the impeachment saying the conservative leader “violated his duty as commander-in-chief by mobilising troops” when he declared martial law.

The president was also said to have taken actions “beyond the powers provided in the constitution”.

Demonstrators who stayed overnight near the constitutional court wait for the start of a rally calling for the president to step down. Pic: AP
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Demonstrators stayed overnight near the constitutional court. Pic: AP

Supporters and opponents of the president gathered in their thousands in central Seoul as they awaited the ruling.

The 64-year-old shocked MPs, the public and international allies in early December when he declared martial law, meaning all existing laws regarding civilians were suspended in place of military law.

Read more from Sky News:
Highs and lows of Five-Year Keir
MP tells Sky News she was targeted online by Tate brothers

More on South Korea

The Constitutional Court is under heavy police security guard ahead of the announcement of the impeachment trial. Pic: AP
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The court was under heavy police security guard ahead of the announcement. Pic: AP

After suddenly declaring martial law, Mr Yoon sent hundreds of soldiers and police officers to the National Assembly.

He has argued that he sought to maintain order, but some senior military and police officers sent there have told hearings and investigators that Mr Yoon ordered them to drag out politicians to prevent an assembly vote on his decree.

His presidential powers were suspended when the opposition-dominated assembly voted to impeach him on 14 December, accusing him of rebellion.

The unanimous verdict to uphold parliament’s impeachment and remove Mr Yoon from office required the support of at least six of the court’s eight justices.

South Korea must hold a national election within two months to find a new leader.

Lee Jae-myung, leader of the main liberal opposition Democratic Party, is the early favourite to become the country’s next president, according to surveys.

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