US advises its citizens in Gaza to move closer to Egypt’s Rafah crossing

RIYADH - The United States government on Saturday advised its citizens in Gaza to move south towards the Rafah border crossing with Egypt to be ready for its possible reopening after a Hamas attack in Israel drew Israeli military retaliation in the densely populated coastal enclave.

Washington worked with Egypt, Israel and Qatar to try to open the Rafah crossing for limited hours on Saturday afternoon to allow Palestinian-Americans to leave, a senior State Department official told reporters travelling with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

But it was unclear whether Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, which controls Gaza, would allow access to the crossing, or whether any US citizens were able to exit, the official said later. It was not immediately known whether the US would make another attempt to get Rafah opened on Sunday.

“We have informed US citizens in Gaza with whom we are in contact that if they assess it to be safe, they may wish to move closer to the Rafah border crossing,” a US State Department spokesman said. “There may be very little notice if the crossing opens, and it may only open for a limited time.”

The US government estimates the number of dual-citizen Palestinian-Americans in Gaza at 500 to 600 among the strip’s population of 2.3 million, and Washington hopes to get many of its nationals out of harm’s way.

US President Joe Biden stressed the

urgent need to get humanitarian aid to Palestinian civilians

in calls on Saturday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, the White House said.

In his first call with Mr Abbas since

Hamas’ attack on Israel a week ago,

Mr Biden offered Mr Abbas his full support for getting humanitarian aid to Palestinian people and discussed US efforts to ensure that supplies reach civilians in Gaza, it said.

On the fourth day of his most extensive trip yet to the Middle East, US top diplomat Blinken on Sunday met Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom’s de facto ruler, in Riyadh. The American has been working with regional allies to prevent the war between Israel and Hamas from spiralling into a bigger conflict, and help secure the release of hostages kidnapped by the Islamist group.

After a visit to the United Arab Emirates, Mr Blinken returned for a second stop in Riyadh on Sunday and said he held a “very productive” meeting with the Saudi Crown Prince, a critical diplomatic engagement as Israel prepared to launch a ground assault in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip and Washington worked to contain the conflict.

“Very productive,” Mr Blinken said in response to a reporter’s question as he returned to the hotel where the US delegation was staying.

A US official said the meeting lasted for just under an hour and took place at the Crown Prince’s private farm residence.

“The Secretary highlighted the United States’ unwavering focus on halting terrorist attacks by Hamas, securing the release of all hostages, and preventing the conflict from spreading,” the State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement.

With Washington especially determined to deter Iran from becoming involved, Mr Blinken also spoke by phone with China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi. He asked his Chinese counterpart to help keep the conflict from spreading, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said.

It was the first high-level contact between Washington and Beijing since last weekend’s Hamas attack and came amid heightened tensions between the two rival powers on a range of issues.

Iran, meanwhile, warned that if Israel’s bombardment was not halted immediately, “the situation could spiral out of control”.

In a post on X, formerly Twitter, Teheran’s mission to the United Nations in New York wrote: “If the Israeli apartheid’s war crimes and genocide are not halted immediately, the situation could spiral out of control and ricochet far-reaching consequences – the responsibility of which lies with the UN, the Security Council and the states steering the Council toward a dead end.”

Working to protect civilians

Mr Blinken started his tour in Israel,

where he voiced US support for Washington’s closest Middle East ally in its war against Hamas, whose gunmen rampaged through Israeli towns on Oct 7, killing 1,300 people and taking dozens of hostages to Gaza. Israeli’s military retaliation has killed more than 2,200 people and levelled whole neighbourhoods.

A State Department official said on Saturday that 29 Americans have been confirmed dead after the Hamas attack and 15 are unaccounted for.

Speaking before the meeting in Riyadh, Mr Blinken said protecting civilians on both sides of the conflict was vital.

“And we’re working together to do exactly that, in particular, working on establishing safe areas in Gaza, working on establishing corridors so that humanitarian assistance can reach people who need it,” Mr Blinken said.

“None of us want to see suffering by civilians on any side, whether it’s in Israel, whether it’s in Gaza, whether it’s anywhere else. And we’re working together to do our best to protect them.”

In remarks published by the US State Department, the Saudi Foreign Minister said the priority had to be stopping additional civilian suffering.

“I have to emphasise that the humanitarian situation in Gaza is very, very difficult, and we need to work together to make sure that access for humanitarian relief and humanitarian goods is allowed,” the minister said.

Following his first visit to Riyadh, Mr Blinken travelled to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to meet President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

A State Department statement issued following those talks said Mr Blinken “expressed appreciation for the UAE’s clear condemnation of Hamas’ heinous attacks on Israeli civilians”.

An earlier US statement following Mr Blinken’s Riyadh meeting with Prince Faisal said the two men discussed “their shared commitment to taking steps to help protect civilians” in the conflict, but made no mention that the Saudis had refrained so far from explicitly denouncing Hamas.

Mr Blinken’s call earlier with his Chinese counterpart was “productive”, Mr Miller said. The Chinese, he added, “do have influence with a number of countries in the region”.

China’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement that Mr Wang called for an international peace conference over the crisis and that the two men also touched on US-China relations, which Mr Wang said were showing signs of stabilising.

Mr Blinken was due to fly to Egypt on Sunday before returning to Washington. REUTERS