More than 300 Americans and their family members have left Gaza after “intensive negotiations”, but a number of US citizens still remain there, said a White House official.
“We believe that there are still a number of Americans inside Gaza, but that over the last several days, through pretty intensive negotiations with all sides relevant to this conflict, we have been able to get out more than 300 Americans,” deputy national security advisor Jon Finer told CBS News.
Those released included US citizens, lawful permanent residents and their family members, Mr Finer said.
He, however, did not specify the number of Americans who are still inside Gaza.
Last week, US secretary of state Antony Blinken said around 400 American citizens and their family members, totalling around 1,000 people, wanted to leave the besieged strip.
Evacuations of injured Gazans and foreign passport holders through the Rafah crossing to Egypt have been suspended since Saturday, but Egyptian, US and Qatari officials said efforts were on to resume them.
Israel initiated retaliatory bombardment on Gaza after Hamas gunmen on 7 October killed 1,400 people and took more than 240 hostages. Gaza health authorities said more than 9,770 Palestinians have been killed in the retaliatory Israeli strikes. This includes over 4,000 children.
Israel claimed it is aiming its attacks at Hamas, not civilians, and accuses the group of using them as human shields. The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) said 31 Israeli soldiers have been killed since the ground operation began in Gaza on 27 October.
Difficult negotiations have continued to secure the release of the captives that include some Americans, Mr Finer said.
“Those negotiations are going on quietly behind the scenes. They have taken longer than any of us would like,” he said. “But we continue to believe that there is the possibility of getting a significant number of these hostages released.”
President Joe Biden on Wednesday spoke about the need for a pause in hostilities to allow hostages to get out, and the White House said it supports a “humanitarian pause” to allow aid deliveries to Gaza.
A spokesperson for IDF told CNN late on Sunday that bombardments in northern Gaza were halted for several hours for two days in a row to allow civilians safe passage to move to the south of the narrow coastal strip.
Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus, the spokesperson, said there was access to water and humanitarian goods in the south of Gaza, but claimed Hamas was impeding convoys by firing on them. These claims could not be independently verified.
Meanwhile, Mr Blinken met Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas on Sunday. Aside from pleasantries, neither man spoke as they greeted each other in front of cameras and the meeting ended without any public comment. It was not immediately clear if the lack of words indicated the meeting had gone poorly.
US CIA director William Burns is set to visit Israel on Monday to discuss the war and intelligence with senior officials, reported The New York Times. Mr Burns also will make stops in other Middle East countries to discuss the Gaza situation, NYT quoted an unnamed US official as saying.
Additional reporting by agencies
