A White House official said that more than 300 people, among them Americans and their families, have managed to cross the Rafah border crossing and out of Gaza.
Deputy National Security Adviser Jonathan Finer told CBS that the figure included "Americans, lawful permanent residents, and their family members" but fell short of confirming how many have crossed the border and how many remained in Gaza.
"This is obviously a major priority, and one that we're going to continue to work out until every American who wants to leave is able to do so," he added.
Separately, Fox News also obtained a list of 400 names of US citizens cleared to leave Gaza as the war between Israel and Hamas continues, a figure US Secretary of State Antony Blinken confirmed.
There are still a number of Americans remaining in Gaza, and the US State Department has been working to assign them specific departure dates and will attempt to notify those they have made contact with. In total, around 1,000 people affiliated with American nationals wanted to leave Gaza.
Aside from Americans, there are also Mexicans, Hungarians, Croatians, South Koreans, Azerbaijanis, Greeks, Chadians, Bahrainis, Italians, Swiss, North Macedonians, Sri Lankans, Dutch, Belgians, and Filipinos still inside Gaza and waiting to get out via Rafah.
"We expect American citizens to exit today, and we expect to see more depart over the coming days," US President Joe Biden said on social media last week. "We won't let up working to get Americans out of Gaza."
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Finer: Hostage Negotiations Continue
At least 10 Americans were feared to be among the 242 people held captive by Hamas inside Gaza. Finer said that negotiations remained ongoing for their release, with Israel believing that the hostages were being held under Gaza City in a network of Hamas tunnels.
"Those negotiations are going on quietly behind the scenes. They have taken longer than any of us would like," Finer added. "But we continue to believe that there is the possibility of getting a significant number of these hostages released."
Finer also referred to Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when they both explained the possibility of a pause in the fighting to enable the release of hostages, just like when American mother-daughter duo Judith and Natalie Raanan were released a few weeks ago.
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