Gaza, Apr 29 (IANS): Nearly 180 Palestinians, who had been evacuated from conflict-ravaged Sudan to Egypt, arrived in the coastal enclave, said the Hamas-run Interior Ministry.

The batch, mostly students, arrived in the Gaza Strip through the Rafah Border Crossing with Egypt, the Ministry's spokesperson Iyad al-Bozzom said on Friday in a statement.

Al-Bozzom thanked the Egyptian authorities for an exceptional move to open the Rafah crossing to facilitate the home return, Xinhua news agency reported.

Early on Thursday, several buses carrying Palestinians from Khartoum, Sudan's capital, arrived in Egypt, the Palestinian embassy in Cario has said.

A growing number of countries have evacuated citizens from Sudan since fierce clashes broke out between the Sudanese Army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces in mid-April.

At least 459 people have been killed and more than 4,000 wounded so far in the fighting in Sudan, with hundreds of thousands of people displaced, according to WHO and UNHCR estimates.