2023-10-15 16:12:00
Egypt is willing to accept Americans from Gaza but Hamas prevents passage, says White House
Hamas has been preventing Americans from leaving Gaza through the Rafah crossing into Egypt, even though Cairo agreed to allow American citizens to cross into the country, the White House said Sunday.
“We have told President Sisi to open the border to let Americans out,” national security adviser Jake Sullivan told CNN’s Jake Tapper. “The situation there at the intersection is actually more complicated.”
Sullivan said that while the Egyptians agreed to allow the Americans to leave to obtain safe passage through the Rafah crossing and the Israelis agreed, “to ensure that the area around there would be secure, at least to the extent that they were able to to do so,” when a group tried to cross yesterday, “was actually Hamas taking steps to try to prevent that from happening.”
“But we’re still working on this 24 hours a day, and we’re doing everything we can to make sure that American citizens who are in Gaza can get through that border crossing,” Sullivan said. He added that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was in Egypt this Sunday to meet with the country’s president, and that he was “at the top of his list to help get those American citizens out of Loop”.
“Anyone who is an American citizen should have the right to freely pass through there, and then have the American government facilitate their journey home,” he said.
Key context: Egypt faces growing pressure to act as neighboring Gaza is bombed by Israeli aircraft following Hamas’ brutal October 7 terrorist attacks on Israel.
Following the Hamas attacks, Israel closed its two border crossings with Gaza and imposed a “total siege” on the territory, blocking the supply of fuel, electricity and water.
The Rafah border crossing, between Gaza and Egypt, is the only viable exit to remove the population from the territory and bring supplies into it. But it is unclear whether the pass is operational.
Egypt’s Foreign Minister told CNN this Saturday that the crossing was officially open on the Egyptian side, but that aerial bombardment had left the roads leading to the crossing on the Gaza side “inoperative.” He stressed the need for humanitarian shipments to use the passage.
CNN spoke this Saturday with several Gaza residents who said they had tried to leave through the Rafah border crossing, but were ultimately turned away.
CNN’s Nadeen Ebrahim contributed to this article.
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