WASHINGTON – About 1,000 Americans are trapped in Gaza with no way out because Hamas terrorists refuse to open the region’s main exit route to Egypt, Secretary of State Antony Blinken told the Senate Appropriations Committee Tuesday.
The figure was revealed by America’s top diplomat on the same day the State Department operated its last chartered evacuation flight out of Israel.
Hamas has refused to allow anyone who wants to leave its territory through the Rafah crossing, where Israeli officials have told Gazans to flee to avoid escalating ground attacks.
Among those caught in the middle are about 400 Americans and their families – about 1,000 people in all, Blinken said, as well as an estimated 5,000 people from other countries.
“We are working with various parties to try to make it easier for them to leave Gaza,” he said. “The obstacle is simple: it is Hamas.”
Blinken added that his department is “focusing on this matter intensively” and working with regional partners to come up with ways to get US citizens out of Gaza.
“We have not yet found a way to take them out through any place and by any means that Hamas does not block, but we are working on it with mediators,” he said.
About 1,000 Americans are trapped in Gaza with no way out as Hamas terrorists refuse to open the region’s main exit to Egypt.ZUMAPRESS.com
The department has been “communicating as closely as possible with Americans trapped in Gaza,” but so far, it has not been able to get them out, Blinken continued.
“We have about 5,500 communications that we have started – phone calls, emails, WhatsApp – to connect with them to try to guide them as best as possible, and work on their ability to go,” he said.
But Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) told the secretary of the plight of one Oregon family he contacted who “told me how they three times got text messages [or] The email said, ‘Remove everything [and] go to the crossroads of Rafah,’ and they waited until dark. But each time, nothing happened.”
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“They were not harassed by Hamas, only the gates were never opened,” said Merkley. “With the truck coming in [with humanitarian aid from Egypt]why can’t we at the same time … get that American family … out that door?”
Blinken admitted that the department had “had times where we thought we would be able to move forward … only to find that the necessary procedures that had to be put in place to actually make the work could not continue,” asserting that “Hamas has become a barrier to that.”
“We are working on it with Egypt. We are working on it with Israel. We are looking for ways to get people out,” the secretary said. “But because Hamas controls what happens for the most part inside Gaza, unless it agrees, then it will be very difficult to resolve it.”
Among those trapped in the middle are about 400 Americans and their families — about 1,000 people in all, Blinken said, as well as an estimated 5,000 people from other countries.REUTERS After about a week of calls for the Biden administration to help evacuate people Americans from Israel, the State Department announced it will begin sending chartered flights to pick up US citizens. Xinhua/Shutterstock
Other Americans remain stuck in Israel without a flight home after a major airline canceled operations in the Jewish state following the October 7 Hamas terror attack that killed more than 1,400 people — including at least 33 US citizens.
After about a week of calls for the Biden administration to help evacuate Americans from Israel, the State Department announced it would begin sending charter flights to pick up US citizens.
However, Tuesday saw the last scheduled charter flight after State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said only five passengers had boarded a full-size plane earlier this week.
Still, Miller left open the possibility that the department could restart flights if demand picks up.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
