Four Italians, one Palestinian relative cross from Gaza into Egypt

The five were being assisted by the staff of the Italian embassy in Cairo, waiting to be transferred. At least 320 foreign passport holders and some gravely injured Palestinians left the enclave for Egypt via Rafah on Wednesday in a first batch of evacuations from the enclave, the first to benefit from a deal mediated by Qatar, three Egyptian sources and a Palestinian official said.

(Recasts with first Italians leaving Gaza) ROME, Nov 1 (Reuters) -

Four Italian citizens have left the Israeli-besieged Gaza Strip and reached Egypt through the Rafah border crossing, the Italian foreign minister said on Wednesday. The four Italians, one of whom was accompanied by his Palestinian wife, are members of non-governmental organisations.

"I am happy to confirm that a first group of Italians who wanted to leave Gaza has left the Strip. They are all well," Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said in a statement. The five were being assisted by the staff of the Italian embassy in Cairo, waiting to be transferred.

At least 320 foreign passport holders

and some gravely injured Palestinians left the enclave for Egypt via Rafah on Wednesday in a first batch of evacuations from the enclave, the first to benefit from a deal mediated by Qatar, three Egyptian sources and a Palestinian official said. The Italian government is working to get other Italians and their relatives out of Gaza, Tajani said. "We expect to get them out with the next openings, which are planned for tomorrow and the next few days."

The evacuation operation was carried out thanks to the cooperation of the Italian embassies in Tel Aviv and Cairo and the consulate general in Jerusalem, he added. Last week, Tajani said the government was trying to bring a group of 18 people out of Gaza. Seven of them hold Italian citizenship, seven have dual Italian-Palestinian citizenship and four of them are relatives with Palestinian passports.