Who are the foreign nationals trapped in Gaza?
As of Thursday morning, there were about 400 U.S. citizens stuck in Gaza who wanted to get out, according to the United States. Later Thursday, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said at a White House briefing that 74 people — U.S. citizens and their family members — had made it to the Egyptian side of the border that day.
There were about 200 British nationals in Gaza who wanted to leave Gaza, the BBC reported Wednesday. And 450 Canadian citizens have put in requests to leave as well, the BBC added Thursday.
Spain said it expected that between 140 and 170 of its citizens would be able to exit Gaza on Thursday and Friday, the newspaper El Pais reported. Ten Japanese citizens and eight of their Palestinian family members left Gaza on Wednesday, the Japan Times reported.
The list of foreigners who were allowed to leave Thursday included citizens of Germany, Sri Lanka, Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland, North Macedonia, Italy, Bahrain, Chad, Greece, Azerbaijan, South Korea, Croatia, Hungary and Mexico, among others.
There are also a number of foreign nationals among the approximately 200 hostages being held in Gaza by Hamas. Some of the hostages’ families have raised concerns that Israel’s ground invasion of Gaza could endanger the hostages.
Why are there foreign and dual nationals in Gaza?
Many of the foreign nationals in Gaza are members of the Palestinian diaspora, which is concentrated in the United States and the Gulf nations. Many — if not most — Palestinian-Americans have both U.S. and Palestinian passports; the United States recognizes passports issued by the Palestinian Authority as valid travel documents but says that they do not confer citizenship, as it does not recognize Palestine as a country.
Some U.S. citizens in Gaza are there for other reasons. One of the first Americans to exit Gaza this week was Ramona Okumura, a 71-year-old prosthesis expert from Seattle who was in the area building prosthetic limbs for child amputees. She was among five American aid workers who left Gaza on Wednesday.
What is it like for foreign nationals and others in Gaza?
The scenario for nearly everyone in Gaza, foreign nationals and otherwise, is bleak. The narrow, densely populated strip of land — surrounded by Israel, Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea — has been under siege by Israel for weeks following the Hamas attack. Israel has cut off the flow of electricity and access to water, forcing people to ration drinking water and even turn to seawater.
Fuel is running out, making evacuations difficult and threatening to disable the generators used by hospitals. Israel has also intermittently cut off telecommunications, further complicating efforts by concerned family members abroad to make sure their loved ones are still alive.
The situation is especially challenging for foreign nationals in Gaza. Many were not expecting to stay there longer than a short trip — meaning they could run out of medication or other necessities. Some may not even speak Arabic.
Jamal Kaoud, a Palestinian-American who has a heart condition and was running low on medication, was able to leave Gaza Thursday, his sister-in-law, Haifa Kaoud, said in an interview. But three of his brothers, including Haifa’s husband, Hesham, as well as his nephew — all Americans — are still in Gaza and were not on the list of people permitted to leave Thursday, Haifa said.
She has been communicating with Hesham, 55, over WhatsApp. Haifa asks him daily after he wakes up, “How was your night?” Hesham is a light sleeper even in their home near Dallas, she said. Now, amid the war, each morning he says “it was the worst night, bombing everywhere, ambulances,” Haifa said.
Haifa is also relaying information about the situation to her husband and his brothers and nephew, who are staying with extended family near the Rafah border after evacuating from the north of Gaza. She has access to his email account so she can pass along communications from the U.S. government about whether they will be able to leave. He asks her for the latest news, as his internet connection is weak. “Sometimes I send him pictures of my daughter, just to make him happy,” she said.
When Jamal’s name was posted in the middle of the night in Gaza on the list of foreigners allowed to leave, she told her husband to tell his brother to get to the border early in the morning. Doing so involved a scramble to find a neighbor with a car and enough fuel amid the shortage to ferry evacuees to the border — a 15 minute drive away.
While Haifa and her family wait for the men’s names to be posted on the list, she worries about their safety. She said she’s “waiting for the list tonight, praying it has my husband’s name on it.”
“By chance, they are in a house which the bombs missed,” she said. “But they could be in any other place and we could lose them, and I can’t imagine that.”
When will foreign nationals leave Gaza?
Hundreds of foreign nationals were expected to exit Gaza through the Rafah crossing on Thursday in phases. A list of the names of about 600 foreign nationals who were permitted to cross the border was published early Thursday local time by Gazan authorities.
Kirby, the National Security Council spokesman, said at a White House briefing on Thursday afternoon that 74 U.S. citizens and their family members had made it to the Egyptian side of the border on Thursday. That was in addition to five Americans who departed Gaza on Wednesday, he said.
Kirby said that the numbers were fluctuating “in real time.” The U.S. Embassy in Cairo has deployed a consular team to the Rafah crossing, he said, to bring the Americans and their family members to the embassy in Cairo and assist in arranging travel from there.
One American family — Abood Okal, Wafaa Abuzayda and their 1-year-old son Yousef Okal — crossed into Egypt on Thursday, according to a representative for the family. They were being transported from Rafah, Egypt, to Cairo by U.S. Consular Affairs, the representative said, before traveling home to Medway, Mass.
What about Gazans without foreign passports?
Some injured Palestinians have been permitted to leave Gaza through the Rafah crossing as hospitals in the enclave falter amid intense crowding and lack of power and medical supplies.
International and humanitarian groups have pleaded for a cease-fire, citing the large number of civilian casualties in Gaza, with children comprising many of the fatalities. UNICEF, the United Nations agency for children, said Gaza had become a “graveyard” for children and a “living hell” for everyone else.
Aside from the calls on Israel to pause the strikes, aid groups have urged Israel to allow fuel to pass through to Gaza, to power cars for evacuations and generators for use in hospitals, some of which ran out of fuel this week. The Israeli military has expressed fears that Hamas will divert the fuel and use it for attacks against Israel.
In the past week, some aid — including food and water — has made it into Gaza through the Rafah crossing. Still, international officials and aid groups have said the amount of aid supplied so far pales in comparison to the widespread need across Gaza.
Joanna Slater and Sarah Dadouch contributed to this report.