Israel: Palestinians With Foreign Passports Can Flee Gaza

For the civilians living in Gaza, there is a way that they may be able to flee the chaos and destruction. If they have foreign passports, Palestinian civilians can leave the Gaza Strip.

For the seventh day, the Israeli assault onto the Gaza Strip continues. At the same time, the militant group Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, continues to fire rockets onto Israeli soil. So far, the casualty rate has been in the hundreds. Hundreds more have been critically wounded in the assaults. The attacks have brought forth international condemnation. A good number of civilians were killed in the assaults. While the United States supports Israeli, it cautions to avoid civilian casualties. The US also urged Hamas to stop firing rockets onto Israel. At the same time, Israeli is contemplating a 48-hour halt to the strikes. But, that means the airstrikes onto Gaza will not stop. In the case of those that live in Gaza, they really had nowhere to run or hide. Egypt had denied asylum to the Palestinians in Gaza. Now, Israeli has granted Palestinians permission to leave if they have foreign passports. 14-year-old Jawaher Hajji is one of them. Hajji has a US passport. She had lost both her uncle and her father. Hajji’s uncle was killed trying to pick up medicine for her father. Her father has cancer. Her father ended up succumbing to the cancer. “They are supposed to destroy just the Hamas, but people in their homes are dying too,” Hajji explained. So far Israel had sent leaflets to those to flee their homes if they are hiding weapons and/or militants. However, most of those living in Gaza have no idea what their neighbors could be hiding. There is a high chance that a ground invasion could follow after. That could come after the Israeli elections. So far, the airstrikes and the impending invasion into Gaza is inevitably a major international problem. It will be one of the first major challenges for United States President-Elect Barack Obama once he takes office of US President on January 20, 2009. There is the strong possibility that Syria, Lebanon, and Iran can get thrown into the mix. Perhaps all the problems plaguing the Middle East might inevitably be combined into one massive problem.