American citizens trapped in the Gaza Strip and their families in the US are lawyering up after weeks of desperate and futile attempts to exit the war zone, which has been under heavy bombardment by Israel since Hamas’s attacks on 7 October.
Nearly a dozen lawsuits have been filed or are set to be filed against the US state department, according to the Arab American Civil Rights League.
“It’s a matter of time until I hear that a client of mine has been killed,” said writer and immigration attorney Maria Kari, who is involved in three lawsuits in California and Texas. “I’ve never raced against the clock to file a lawsuit because it was life and death.”
On Wednesday, some dual nationals, along with severely injured residents of Gaza, began leaving the coastal territory after an agreement was struck between Israel, Hamas, Egypt, Qatar and the US to partly open the Rafah crossing on the Gaza-Egypt border. Joe Biden announced: “We expect American citizens to exit today, and we expect to see more depart over the coming days.” It is not immediately clear whether any US citizens have exited.
An email sent on Tuesday from the US Department of State’s bureau of consular affairs to a US citizen in Gaza said: “The US Government has reliable information that limited departures from Gaza may begin this week. US citizens and family members will be assigned specific departure dates to ensure an orderly crossing.”
But Kari says she does not plan to press pause on her legal actions as her clients approach a month of this war in the besieged territory until every one of her clients is out of Gaza. Nearly 8,800 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli strikes, according to the health ministry in Gaza. About 1,400 Israelis were killed in the Hamas attacks on 7 October.
Kari is one of about 40 attorneys across 18 states who are working pro bono to file lawsuits based on the equal protection clause of the constitution, arguing their clients received disparate treatment in repatriation efforts when compared with efforts to evacuate US citizens in Israel. “We are simply asking the federal court to compel the Biden administration to do what it’s already done for a class of citizens,” said Kari.
The first of these lawsuits, filed in the eastern district of Michigan on 17 October, states: “If our government can remove US citizens under attack in Israel from missiles Hamas launches into Israel, surely it owes Palestinian-Americans the very same protections from the indiscriminate bombing of its ally, Israel, using munitions paid for by American taxpayers. Surely ‘unqualified support’ for Israel cannot come at the expense of American blood.”
Americans in Israel have been provided with chartered flights and a Royal Caribbean cruise ship to evacuate. US citizens in Gaza said they were repeatedly told to go to the Rafah crossing with Egypt to wait for an evacuation that has not happened. Rafah is operated by a combination of Hamas and Egypt, though Israel has also been determining who and what enters and leaves the territory through the crossing. Reuters reported on Wednesday that Israel and Egypt had approved a list of foreign passport holders expected to cross into Egypt in the coming days.
Nabil Alshurafa, a medical researcher in Chicago, said that his mother was waiting at the Rafah crossing, believing she would be able to leave Gaza, when an Israeli airstrike hit close by on 10 October.
“I feel betrayed and deserted by my president, by the state department,” said Alshurafa, who filed a lawsuit in the central district of California earlier this week.
His mother, Naela Elshorafa, 66, of Camarillo, California, was visiting her ailing 85-year-old mother when the war broke out.
The state department has not confirmed to the Guardian how many US citizens are now in Gaza, but news reports estimate between 500 and 600. Antony Blinken, the US secretary of state, said on Tuesday that 400 US citizens and their families were seeking to leave.
A spokesperson from the US embassy said: “We continue to work urgently in partnership with Egypt, the United Nations and Israel to facilitate the ability of US citizens and their immediate family members to exit Gaza safely and travel via Egypt to their final destinations.”
Nabil Alshurafa describes his communications with the state department these past weeks as “all vagueness. It’s all a cloud … The state department speaks as if it has no leverage.”
Kal Raustiala, a professor of law at the University of California, Los Angeles, said the obligations of the US government to its citizens abroad are legally murky.
“There really is no legal obligation to protect or repatriate American citizens. Under international law, countries always have the right, but not necessarily the duty to protect,” said Raustiala. But, he said, they have political and moral incentives to do so. “That is a key reason we have embassies and consular officials posted around the world.”
Mai Abushaaban, 22, filed suit in the southern district of Texas on Tuesday to get her mother, 45, and sister, 20, out.
“For my mom and sister, there’s this light at the end of the tunnel, that they can leave and flee to safety. But they’re caught between two fires. They don’t want to stay and risk their lives, but they also feel guilty for leaving our loved ones behind.”
