Biden says 74 Americans with dual nationality left Gaza

“Rand today we removed 74 Americans with dual nationality”, announced Biden in a brief conversation with journalists when receiving the President of the Dominican Republic, Luis Abinader, for a meeting in the Oval Office, in Washington.

The White House previously said that around 500 to 600 US citizens have been stranded in Gaza since the start of the war between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas on October 7.

Since then, the conflict that has lasted for almost a month has continued to worsen with no end in sight.

Biden made the announcement while United States Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, was leaving for a new trip to the Middle East.

As he did last month, the US Secretary of State will highlight, during his visits to Tel Aviv and also to Amman, his support for Israel, as Washington tries to prevent the conflict from spreading in the Middle East.

Blinken’s agenda, according to the Associated Press, also includes pressure on Israeli authorities to increase humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, controlled by Hamas, and control the violence carried out by Jewish settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank.

“We are talking about concrete steps that can and should be taken to minimize harm to men, women and children in Gaza,” Blinken told reporters as he departed on a trip that will take him to Israel and Jordan, adding that “this is something the United States is committed to.”

The Secretary of State, while calling for brief pauses in airstrikes and humanitarian fighting, is expected to continue to oppose growing calls for a broader ceasefire.

According to Joe Biden, there should be a humanitarian pause in the war between Israel and Hamas with the aim of removing people imprisoned in the Gaza Strip.

But Blinken will also introduce a new element to the United States’ list of priorities: the need for Israel and its neighbors to begin considering what a post-conflict Gaza Strip will look like, who will govern it, how to make it safe and how to establish a state. independent Palestinian.

Several voices in the United States, including Biden and Blinken, have repeatedly said they do not believe an Israeli reoccupation of Gaza is viable, and Israel agrees.

But what comes next has been little explored beyond the brief comments Blinken made Tuesday in congressional testimony, when he spoke about the possibility of a revitalized Palestinian Authority and perhaps Arab states and international organizations playing a significant role in the territory in post-conflict.

Blinken will speak about “the U.S. commitment to working with partners to establish the conditions for lasting and sustainable peace in the Middle East, including the establishment of a Palestinian state that reflects the aspirations of the Palestinian people in Gaza and the West Bank,” the door said. -State Department spokesman Matthew Miller.

His itinerary after Jordan remains uncertain, although he will attend a meeting of Group of Seven foreign ministers in Japan next week, before traveling to South Korea and India for much wider discussions, including China and the war in Ukraine.

The Islamist group Hamas launched a surprise attack on southern Israel on October 7 with the launch of thousands of rockets and the incursion of armed militiamen, taking two hundred hostages.

In response, Israel declared war on Hamas, a movement that has controlled the Gaza Strip since 2007 and which is classified as terrorist by the European Union and the United States, bombing several of the group’s infrastructures in the Gaza Strip and imposing a total siege on the territory with a cut of supply of water, fuel and electricity.

The conflict has already caused thousands of deaths and injuries, among military personnel and civilians, in both territories.

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