WASHINGTON — President Biden said Thursday that dozens of US citizens had left the Gaza Strip that day — after Secretary of State Antony Blinken said earlier this week that about 400 individuals and their family members were trapped in the Hamas-ruled war zone.
“Good news: We got out today 74 American folks, dual citizens,” Biden told reporters in the Oval Office during a meeting with the Dominican Republic’s president, Luis Abinader.
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said at a press briefing that “so far 74 US citizens and family members arrived on the Egyptian side, that’s in addition to the five Americans who departed Gaza yesterday.”
Kirby added that “we still fully expect that more Americans will be able to depart — hopefully more today, but certainly we’re looking for them to depart at a similar pace, if not better than what we’ve seen.”
The spokesman said that “today’s positive news would not have been possible without the assistance of Qatar, or frankly, the leadership of President [Abdel Fattah el-]Sisi of Egypt.”
Biden called Wednesday night for a “pause” in fighting after announcing that Hamas had agreed to let some of the hundreds of Americans trapped in Gaza depart the territory into Egypt.
The Israeli military has heavily bombed and nearly encircled Gaza City, the most populous area of the small Palestinian territory, in an effort to remove Hamas from power.
Blinken told the Senate Appropriations Committee Tuesday that “we have about 400 American citizens and their family members, so it’s roughly 1,000 people who are stuck in Gaza and want to get out.”
2005: Israel unilaterally withdraws from the Gaza Strip over three decades after winning the territory from Egypt in the Six-Day War.
2006: Terrorist group Hamas wins a Palestinian legislative election.
2007: Hamas seizes control of Gaza in a civil war.
2008: Israel launches military offensive against Gaza after Palestinian terrorists fired rockets into the town of Sderot.
2023: Hamas launches the biggest attack on Israel in 50 years, in an early-morning ambush Oct. 7, firing thousands of rockets and sending dozens of militants into Israeli towns.
Terrorists killed more than 1,400 Israelis, wounded more than 4,200, and took at least 200 hostage.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was quick to announce “We are at war,” and vowed Hamas would pay “a price it has never known.”
Gaza health officials — which are controlled by Hamas — report at least 3,000 Palestinians have been killed and more than 12,500 injured since the war began.
There also are up to 10 US citizens who were kidnapped by Hamas terrorists and taken to Gaza during the group’s Oct. 7 surprise attack on southern Israel, in which at least 33 Americans were among the more than 1,400 slaughtered in communities near Gaza.
Hamas released two kidnapped US citizens on Oct. 20 and the White House has pointedly declined to say precisely how many are believed to remain captive.