Around 30 American Palestinians, mainly women and children, were evacuated from the Hamas-run Gaza Strip into Israel on Thursday, many of them deeply shaken and desperate to leave.
"The situation in Gaza is shaky baky. I don't care whose in power but I don't want a party who are murderers and thieves," said one woman who called herself the head of an American Palestinian friendship association. "There's no freedom here. There's no security for our lives. I feel sorry because this land is part of me but I can't live here," she said, refusing to give her name but saying she came from Atlanta.
"We're really nervous and we're really scared about these people," she added referring to members of the Hamas self-styled police, the Executive Force, deployed outside the Palestinian side of the Erez crossing to Israel. "I'm head of the American Palestinian Friendship Association but now forget this friendship," she added. A US diplomat confirmed that US nationals were being ferried out of the Gaza Strip and understood that about 40 people were scheduled to cross into Israel.
An AFP correspondent saw around 30 women and children, many in Western dress, clutching bags and looking anxious, saying they had packed in a rush after getting the green light to leave late on Wednesday. "This time I just came to visit and I got trapped because of the situation. Now I'm returning to Dallas where I have family," said Mona, a young human rights worker wearing a headscarf.
The US nationals left the Gaza Strip one day after scores of Ukrainian and Russian women and children were also evacuated. The Hamas take-over of Gaza in a deadly showdown with its Fatah rivals last week prompted Israel to seal off the territory from the outside world. But Israeli military spokesman Lieutenant Shady Yassin said on Wednesday: "Every foreigner in the Gaza Strip can come out whenever he likes. The Erez crossing is open for foreigners and for foreign reporters to go and come in."
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.