Americans are expected to leave Gaza on Wednesday for the first time since Hamas attacked Israel more than three weeks earlier, President Joe Biden confirmed.
This week, conflicting reports emerged over whether US citizens would be part of the first wave of foreigners allowed to leave Gaza at the Rafah crossing into Egypt.
A Massachusetts family remains trapped in the Palestinian enclave and says the US embassy in Cairo has told them there is “no timeline for US citizens to leave Gaza.”
“The State Department told me by email last night that they have not yet confirmed the departure of its citizens, including the Okal family,” Sammy Nabulsi, a lawyer for the family, told DailyMail.com on Wednesday.
But Biden said Wednesday that Americans are among those leaving the Hamas stronghold in the Palestinian enclave of Gaza.
“Today, thanks to American leadership, we secured safe passage for injured Palestinians and for foreigners to leave Gaza,” the president wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
“We expect American citizens to leave today, and we expect more to leave in the coming days,” he added. “We will not stop working to get Americans out of Gaza.”
Abood Okal (right), his wife Wafa Sufian (left) and their one-year-old son have been stuck in Gaza since the Hamas terrorist attacks more than three weeks earlier. Massachusetts U.S. citizens claim they still have no safe or viable path out of the Gaza Strip
People with foreign passports wait at the Rafah border between Gaza and Egypt after it opened this week — and following a negotiated deal to allow foreigners, including Americans, to leave the Palestinian enclave amid Israeli counterattacks
Nabulsi claims Americans have been excluded from a list of foreigners allowed to leave.
The lawyer for the family stuck in Gaza told DailyMail.com that the list of those allowed to cross from Gaza to Egypt includes passport holders from Japan, Austria, Bulgaria, Indonesia, Jordan, Australia, the Czech Republic and Finland.
“The list of approved foreigners included a separate group of NGO workers/aid workers,” Nabulsi said. “I am aware of at least two US citizens who were part of the NGO group that was allowed to cross the border. I don’t know any Americans other than those two.”
But State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said Wednesday that Americans were among those allowed into Egypt from Gaza.
He also said U.S. citizens will be given specific days when they are allowed to leave, and told those waiting to leave the Strip to check their emails — where he said they will receive guidance within the next 24 to 72 hours.
Belarusian outlet Nexta reports that about a dozen Americans were among those who left for Egypt on Wednesday. It is possible that these persons had dual nationality or were part of that NGO list.
Nexta notes that 150 people crossed the border between Egypt and the Gaza Strip on Wednesday.
Abood Okal, his wife and their one-year-old son are all stuck in Gaza.
The family from Medway, Massachusetts, told their lawyer Nabulsi that they are still not allowed safe leave from Gaza.
Okal and his wife and young child are locked in a single-family home with forty other people, including ten Americans.
Hundreds of foreign passport holders who have been trapped for three weeks in the war between Hamas and Israel have flocked to the border, hoping in vain that they could be among the lucky few to escape the carnage.
Although some British families have been allowed through along with injured Palestinians, some have reportedly been turned away by officials, The Telegraph reports.
The British Foreign Office said around 200 trapped Britons will be able to cross the Rafah crossing in “phases” in the coming days.
For some families, they breathed a sigh of relief as they were able to stream out of the border gates, which remained firmly closed to anyone entering the besieged strip amid brutal Israeli counterattacks that Hamas says have killed more than 8,500 people.
The Okal family said they are still stuck in the country, staying in a single-family home with 40 other people — including 10 other Americans.
Photos show relieved families leaving the Rafah border gates for the first time since the start of the conflict between Hamas and Israel on October 7, 2023.
Palestinians are among those who crossed the Egyptian side of the Gaza Strip border crossing amid a barrage of Israeli counterattacks after Gaza’s de facto government and designated terrorist organization Hamas launched an unsolicited attack on the Jewish state.
Palestinians with foreign passports wait at the Rafah border gate to enter Egypt
According to local media, the first groups of foreigners and injured evacuees have now entered Egypt. People arrive by ambulance or on foot, carrying only a few belongings as they make the journey to safety.
Lines began forming at the terminal early Wednesday morning and about 545 foreigners and dual nationals, along with about 90 sick and injured people, are expected to be allowed to leave.
After being allowed into the terminal area, huge lines formed around the intersecting booths for checks on passports and other documents. Ambulances waited on the Egyptian side to take away the wounded and sick.
It is believed that the evacuations were secured as part of an agreement, brokered by Qatar, between Israel, Hamas and Egypt in coordination with the US.
Some Britons stuck in Gaza are expected to be able to leave today via the border crossing with Egypt.
The Gaza Borders and Crossings Authority previously published the names of more than 500 foreigners and dual nationality holders who had been summoned to travel to Rafah to leave the Strip.
The area around the terminal has been hit during Israeli airstrikes, with photos of buildings razed to the ground in Rafah.
Amid relentless Israeli bombing following Hamas’s brutal terrorist attack nearly four weeks ago, those trapped in Gaza are facing shortages of medical supplies, food, water and fuel.
Some of those taken from Gaza for treatment in Egyptian hospitals are among the more than 15,000 injured in Israel’s retaliatory attacks.
The Hamas-led Health Ministry says the bombing killed more than 8,500 people. The designated terrorist organization claimed that two-thirds of the dead were women and children.
The Israeli airstrikes on Gaza came after Hamas’ invasion on October 7, which left 1,400 dead, mostly civilians. Another 240 people were taken hostage.
The terrorist attack led to the largest single-day massacre of Jewish people since the Holocaust.
Yesterday, a refugee camp in northern Gaza was bombed by the Israeli army, killing at least 50 people, according to the Hamas-led health authority.
Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said that “numerous Hamas terrorists were hit during the attack.”
Palestinians injured in the airstrikes were met with ambulances and health care as they crossed from Gaza into Egypt on Wednesday
A medical worker attends to a Palestinian who will receive treatment in an Egyptian hospital
An injured Palestinian man sits in an ambulance as he waits for medical staff to take him to an Egyptian hospital for treatment