Hamas has put wounded fighters on departure lists, delaying efforts to evacuate foreigners, a US official says.

A Biden administration official said Friday that efforts to get Americans and other foreigners out of Gaza, a process that finally began on Wednesday, were being held up by Hamas trying to include its own wounded fighters among those to be sent to Egypt this way. escorted. the Rafah Gate.

The explanation offered a first glimpse into the kinds of details being negotiated with Hamas’s leadership even as Israel began a campaign of airstrikes in response to the massacre of 1,400 people and the taking of more than 200 hostages by Hamas terrorists in attacks. over Israel launched from Gaza on October 7. Hamas politically rules Gaza and also has an armed wing whose fighters are embedded in the enclave’s civilian population.

People with dual American or other foreign citizenship repeatedly gathered at the gate, on Gaza’s southern border, starting shortly after October 7. But for weeks the Rafah border crossing remained closed. For much of that time, U.S. officials said only that Hamas was preventing the departure of foreigners and that the group was making unreasonable demands.

On Friday, a senior government official provided more details on these demands, speaking to reporters on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive negotiations. The official said Hamas has repeatedly provided Israel, the United States and Egypt with lists of Palestinians who were injured and allowed to leave with the Americans and others. But investigations showed that many of them, the official said, were Hamas fighters.

The official said that about a third of the wounded Palestinians on the first list were Hamas fighters and that their leaving Gaza was unacceptable to officials in Egypt, the United States and Israel. The delays continued for some time, the official said, as Hamas continued to provide lists showing its members.

Biden administration officials have said negotiations with Hamas over the release of Americans and other foreigners were indirect and conducted with the help of representatives of the Qatari government, which has long maintained lines of communication with Hamas.

The official who spoke to reporters on Friday said Hamas eventually gave in to its demands for the passage of its fighters. The prospect of Hamas fighters leaving Gaza was particularly alarming for Egypt, which remains concerned about the possibility of terrorists flooding into the country.

Ultimately, the official said, the sides agreed on a list of wounded Palestinians who were not Hamas fighters. The Palestinians who did leave were rightly rounded up in the middle of the fighting, the official said.

The official said negotiations with Hamas and Israel over the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza had also been difficult, but that around 100 trucks of aid were now expected to enter Gaza every day.