At least 10 Americans are still missing following the devastating Hamas attack on Israel – some of them believed to be hostages held in Gaza by Hamas, Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned on Saturday.
The 10 were among about 200 hostages taken in the brutal October 7 attack on southern Israel.
“They include men, women, young men, young women, old people from many countries,” Blinken said. “Every single one of them should be released.”
After two American hostages kidnapped by Hamas terrorists were freed on Friday, Blinken pledged the United States would continue efforts to secure the release of additional hostages and others trapped in the Palestinian territories, even as Israeli tanks and troops lined the Gaza border for the land invasion. towering
“The urgent work to free every American, to free all other hostages continues, as does our work to ensure a safe passage out of Gaza for the Americans trapped there,” Blinken.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken assured that the United States is working to free Americans trapped in Gaza. AP
In addition to the suspected hostages, at least 400 Americans are believed to be trapped in the besieged region, where food, water, fuel, and medicine have been cut off amid intense Israeli bombardment in retaliation for Hamas’ bloody rampage. killing at least 1,400 people in the Jewish state.
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“We are very afraid for our lives,” Abood Okal, 36, who lives outside Boston with his partner, Wafaa Abuzayda, 29, told The Washington Post earlier this week, just minutes after an airstrike bombed a nearby home where they lived with their children. their one-year-old male.
“There is no safe place for us to go and no evacuation plans on the horizon,” he added.
Israeli tanks and soldiers have lined up on the Gaza border for the impending ground invasion. AFP via Getty Images
On Saturday, the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and Gaza opened for the first time since Israel closed the point following the bloody Hamas massacre, allowing a convoy of 20 trucks to bring much-needed aid to Palestinians.
Ahead of the opening, the US Embassy in Israel instructed Americans trapped in Gaza to prepare to escape through the crossing, warning it was unclear how long it might take to open and that they “should expect a potentially chaotic and disorderly environment in both sides of that crossing.”
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But while trucks were allowed in to carry essential supplies – including 44,000 bottles of drinking water and medical supplies for 300,000 people, according to the UN children’s agency and the World Health Organization – Americans and other foreign passport holders who filled the crossing were not allowed out.
“There is no crossing opening, and the suffering is the same,” Dina al-Khatib told the Times of Israel. “They communicate with us, but nothing changes.”
“It is not like previous wars,” he added. “Here there is no electricity, no water, no internet, nothing.”
The Rafah border crossing between Egypt and Gaza was opened to allow much-needed aid for the Palestinians. AFP via Getty Images Egyptian aid workers celebrate as a truck crosses back into Egypt through the Rafah border crossing into the Gaza Strip on October 21, 2023. AFP via Getty Images
Blinken urged all parties to keep the Rafah crossing point open, saying the breakthrough in aid was the result of “days of comprehensive US diplomatic engagement in the region.”
The country’s top diplomat also threatened Hamas not to take any aid supplies that were allowed to enter.
“As President Biden has stated, if Hamas steals or diverts this aid,” Blinken said, “it will show once again that it has no regard for the welfare of the Palestinian people.”
With Postal wire.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
