According to US sources, the US government is in talks with partner countries including Egypt and Israel to ensure safe exit routes for civilians from Gaza, including Americans.
Egypt wants to use a humanitarian corridor to get food and medical supplies into Gaza, but it doesn’t want to open the border in the opposite direction to allow civilians who are fleeing, according to one US official.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday, before leaving for Israel, that talks on building a humanitarian corridor are “ongoing.”
We’ve already started discussing this with Israel. Egypt is a party to the discussions. This is a discussion that never ends. Blinken stated at a brief news conference on the ramp at Joint Base Andrews, “I can’t get into the details.”
The highest ranking American diplomat admitted it was “understandably complicated.”
We want to make sure, as much as we can, that civilians are not harmed, and I believe Israel feels the same way. But Israel needs to take defensive measures. It must ensure that any current threat is eliminated, and it is my opinion that it must take steps to prevent a recurrence of this incident in the future.
Americans in Gaza who talked with AWN voiced anxiety and irritation, saying they felt stuck without a safe passage out of the region, which is under heavy bombardment by Israeli forces. This has increased the pressure to construct a humanitarian corridor. They have reported to AWN that they do not feel supported by the United States government. Reports surfaced on Tuesday that Israeli attacks have closed off Gaza’s sole exit to Egypt, heightening fears of an impending Israeli ground invasion.
On Wednesday’s episode of “AWN This Morning,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said, “We do think it’s important that American citizens who are in Gaza be allowed to leave, and it’s an issue that we are working on.”
We are proceeding in secrecy, as with the majority of our diplomatic initiatives. We do it is something we are attempting to do, but it is not something that is beneficial to discuss in public,” Miller noted.
As national security advisor Jake Sullivan put it on Tuesday, “something also that we have been discussing with our counterparts in Israel and with our counterparts in Egypt.”
Without going into detail, he added, “the United States government is seized within supporting how we do that operationally, including ensuring safe passage for civilians and the like.”
Miller and Sullivan did not provide a timetable for when this secure corridor may be operational.
Officials say they anticipate President Joe Biden will speak with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, and Sullivan has been in contact with Egypt’s espionage head Abbas Kamel during the previous few days.
“It is our top priority to protect the safety and security of Americans overseas,” Miller said on Wednesday. We don’t want civilian deaths anywhere, as the president mentioned yesterday. Protecting people is a priority for us. The protection of people is a top priority for us. The rules of war must be respected, and we expect Israel to do the same.
