Tel Aviv, Nov 4 (IANS): Hamas tried to sneak its fighters out of Gaza in ambulances which were carrying dozens of injured Palestinians to Egypt earlier this week, a senior Biden administration official said, media reports said.

Hamas had compiled a list of the seriously wounded that it wanted to evacuate from Gaza for treatment in Egypt, along with thousands of foreign nationals looking to flee Gaza, Times of Israel reported.

The list was then vetted by Egypt and the United States, which found that a third of the names on it were of Hamas fighters, the administration official said, adding that the list was rejected and none of the 76 injured Palestinians who were ultimately evacuated in ambulances out of Gaza were members of Hamas group.

Meanwhile, two senior Israeli officials told The Times of Israel that Israeli inspectors earlier this week uncovered several oxygen concentrators meant to ventilate the tunnels operated by armed groups in Gaza.

“These weren’t for use in the hospitals, but below them. That’s why they were smuggled among boxes of cookies,” one of the senior Israeli officials said, adding that the entire truck in which the oxygen concentrators were found was barred from entering Gaza, Times of Israel reported.