US-Palestinian evacuees recount horrors of war
The Straits Times|November 08, 2023
It took four failed attempts before Ms Suzan Beseiso was able to get through the Rafah crossing into Egypt and escape the bombardment of the Gaza Strip.
US-Palestinian evacuees recount horrors of war

On each occasion, the 31-year-old Palestinian-American, one of several hundred foreign passport holders allowed to leave the enclave since last week, said she faced acute danger.

"Every single time we went to the border, we got bombed and freaked out," she said on Sunday during an interview in Cairo, where she arrived after crossing the Sinai Peninsula by road. "Bombs were going left and right."

After Israel imposed a total siege on Gaza in retaliation for an Oct 7 incursion by Hamas, the Rafah crossing the only crossing out of Gaza that does not border Israel remained out of operation for nearly two weeks amid diplomatic wrangling over conditions for allowing aid to enter and evacuees to leave.

Since then, a trickle of relief has been trucked into Gaza and some evacuees have left, though the arrangement is fragile and was suspended on Saturday before resuming on Monday.

The month-long war has caused a deepening humanitarian crisis in Gaza as Israel's military campaign has intensified, with many of the territory's 2.3 million inhabitants repeatedly displaced as they struggle to find shelter and safety.

This story is from the November 08, 2023 edition of The Straits Times.

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This story is from the November 08, 2023 edition of The Straits Times.

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