Civilians struggle to flee Gaza as Israel prepares for invasion
NEW YORK - United States leaders are in Israel this weekend to offer more aid and ensure the safe escape of Americans in Palestine before an imminent Israeli ground assault.
The U.S. thought it had negotiated safe passage for Americans stuck in the war zone, but Egypt still has not opened its gates. Saturday night, President Biden spoke up for civilians caught in the conflict.
Bombs across Gaza have caused a bottleneck at the Egyptian border. Rafah was supposed to be the route out. One American citizen told a CBS crew the embassy called him at 2 a.m. to be in place by noon, but he and others had yet to be let across.
"Every place I go, I run away, and I just find bombs and I find dead people, and like maybe one day I will end up like them," said Mariel, a British girl who went to Gaza to visit family. "It's a really scary thing for me."
In Washington, D.C., at the Human Rights Campaign National Dinner, President Biden denounced hate.
"Antisemitism, Islamophobia, homophobia, transphobia, they're all connected," the president said. "Hate towards one group left unanswered opens the door for more hate towards more groups more often."
There are concerns about a humanitarian crisis, as people in Gaza run out of food and drinking water, and there is no electricity. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in Israel, working to convince Egypt to open its border, as the response to Hamas rains down around the innocent.
"Hamas is a terrorist group," Blinken emphasized. "Its only agenda is to destroy the state of Israel and murder Jews. It's important that the entire world see it as such."
Hamas has been accused of using civilians as human shields to hide its targets. Video shows the escape route to Egypt riddled with missile strikes, and a Palestinian medical rescue crew suffered a direct hit.
An American ship carrying humanitarian aid is on the way. The second U.S. military aid shipment arrived in Israel Saturday under the watchful eye of U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, carrying more precision munitions and Iron Dome interception missiles to protect from Hamas rockets.
"You've been really hustling to get this here as quickly as you could, and there's a lot more that follows this," Austin assured the American soldiers accompanying the plane.
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In the week since Hamas launched its attack, 1,300 Israelis have died, and the Palestinian health ministry reports more than 2,200 civilian casualties in Gaza. Austin reminded Israel of its moral responsibility.
"Democracies like ours are stronger and more secure when we uphold the laws of war," Austin said.
Also on Saturday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu joined troops near the southern border as they prepare to advance by land.
Earlier in the day, President Biden spoke with Netanyahu as well as Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, in addition to the families of Americans trapped or missing in both countries.
