74 Americans leave Gaza: Biden

The United States has been able to get 74 Americans with dual citizenship out of the Gaza Strip, President Joe Biden said at the White House yesterday, one day after evacuees began crossing into Egypt.
“Good news, we got out today 74 American folks, dual citizens,” the president told reporters in the Oval Office at the start of a meeting with the president of the Dominican Republic, Luis Abinader.
Biden had said US citizens would be able to start leaving on Wednesday from Gaza, a narrow strip under Israeli bombardment since Oct. 7.
Further details were not immediately available on who had been able to leave Gaza and when.
Biden has thrown his support behind Israel - and visited the country last month - but he has shifted his response in recent weeks as the humanitarian situation worsens in Gaza and the civilian death toll rises.
The death toll from the ongoing Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip for the 27th consecutive day has risen to 9061 martyrs, some 3760 of them children, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said yesterday.
About 32,000 people have been injured, of them 70% children and women, the ministry added.
It said the occupation committed 15 massacres in the last 24 hours, killing 256 people.
Hundreds more foreigners and dual nationals fled war-torn Gaza for Egypt yesterday as Israeli forces bombarded and fought ground battles in the besieged Palestinian territory, where thousands have died.
Egypt said it eventually plans to help evacuate 7,000 foreigners through the Rafah crossing with the Gaza Strip.
The health ministry in Cairo said 21 wounded Palestinians and “344 foreign nationals, including 72 children” passed through the Rafah border crossing yesterday, only the second day it has opened for people to leave Gaza in nearly four weeks of fighting.
A list of those approved to travel showed hundreds of US citizens and 50 Belgians along with smaller numbers from various European, Arab, Asian and African countries.