After weeks of enduring a vicious bombing campaign, some dual nationals and severely wounded Palestinians were allowed to leave Gaza through the Rafah border crossing into Egypt.
An Egyptian official told CNN that 361 foreign passport holders and 81 severely wounded Palestinians entered Egypt through the Rafah crossing on Wednesday. The official said among the foreign nationals are citizens of Austria, the United Kingdom, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Italy, and Japan.
The State Department has estimated that 400 American citizens are trapped in Gaza, but it’s not clear how many got out on Wednesday. According to AP, the White House only expected a “handful” of Americans to be among the people who got out. According to CNN, two American physicians entered Egypt on Wednesday.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his State Department previously said the only thing preventing Americans from leaving Gaza was Hamas, but sources told CNN that a diplomatic agreement was worked out between Israel, Egypt, and Hamas to allow people to cross the border.
According to messages reviewed by ABC News, US officials had told an American citizen stuck in Gaza that there was more than one issue preventing them from leaving despite Blinken’s claim. “There’s more than one sticking point. We need Egypt, Israel, and the DFA (De Facto Authorities) to all agree,” a senior State Department official said in an email on October 21.
Source: AntiWar.
