Several Dutch nationals who were stranded in Gaza have been able to leave the enclave via the Rafah crossing at the border with Egypt, sources have told broadcaster NOS.

Their number includes 16-year-old Mohammed from Doorn, whose mother was killed in an Israeli bombardment last week, NOS said.

“I am very glad to be out of Gaza, but things are different, because my mother is not with us,” the teenager told NOS while waiting at the crossing. “That is what I am feeling right now. We have all lost something.”

Mohammed said he had been told that his family would be back in the Netherlands in between six and 90 hours.

In total, 400 foreign nationals and dual national Palestinians were on a list to leave Gaza on Thursday morning, NOS said.

The Egyptian authorities have said they will help about 7,000 foreigners to use the crossing in batches.

According to the BBC, questions have been raised about what criteria Egypt and Israel are using to draw up that daily list and diplomats from the more than 30 countries are lobbying hard to get their nationals higher up the list.

At least 27 Dutch nationals, many of them children, are known to have been stranded in Gaza since Hamas fighters attacked and killed 1,400 people in the south of the country.

Prime minister Mark Rutte welcomed the news that a number of Dutch nationals had been able to leave the country and expressed his thanks to Egypt for making it possible.