BEIRUT — A convoy of ambulances carrying the first group of wounded and other civilians began leaving eastern Aleppo on Thursday, marking the start of the long-awaited pullout from the last rebel enclave in the embattled Syrian city.

Syrian TV showed live footage of a long convoy of ambulances and green buses driving out and crossing the Ramouseh bridge, en route through government territory and into a rural, rebel-held part of Aleppo province.

The evacuation is part of a cease-fire deal reached this week to have the opposition surrender their last foothold in Aleppo to Syrian government control in the face of a devastating ground and air offensive by government forces in the past weeks that chipped away at the rebel enclave. It will mark the end of the opposition’s four-year control of eastern Aleppo.

Hundreds of civilians have been killed and tens of thousands displaced in the government’s campaign to retake Aleppo.

Ingy Sedky, Damascus spokeswoman for the International Committee of the Red Cross, told The Associated Press that 13 ambulances, each carrying two wounded people, and 20 buses, each carrying up to 50 people, left in the convoy. The evacuation included some critically wounded people.

“This is the first convoy today,” she said, adding that more are expected later in the day.

It was not immediately whether any rebels were among those evacuating in the first batch.

Plans to evacuate on Wednesday were scuttled when the area erupted in violence, raising the haunting possibility that all-out war could consume the city again. Much of eastern Aleppo has been reduced to a scene of devastation and rubble.

Earlier Thursday, the ICRC confirmed its staff arrived together with the Syrian Arab Red Cross to evacuate 200 wounded people from the enclave, some in critical condition.