(Reuters) – The Biden administration is working to get U.S. doctors out of Gaza, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said on Wednesday, as fighting intensified in the seaside enclave.
A group of American doctors from the Palestinian American Medical Association told the Washington Post this week that they were stuck in Gaza after Israel closed the border crossing in the southern city of Rafah.
“We’re tracking this matter closely and working to get the impacted American citizens out of Gaza,” Jean-Pierre said.
Jean-Pierre said the United States was engaging directly with Israel on the matter.
The Biden administration has been warning Israel against a major military ground operation in Rafah, but Jean-Pierre said efforts to get the doctors out are continuing regardless of what happens there.
“We need to get them out. We want to get them out and it has nothing to do with anything else,” she said.
Israeli troops battled militants across Gaza on Wednesday, including in Rafah, which had been a refuge for civilians, in an upsurge of the more than 7-month-old war that has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians.
Gaza’s health care system has essentially collapsed since Israel began its military offensive there after the Oct. 7 cross-border attacks by Palestinian Hamas militants on Israelis.
Humanitarian workers sounded the alarm last week that the closure of the Rafah and Kerem Shalom crossings into Gaza could force aid operations to grind to a halt.
The Israeli assault on Gaza has destroyed hospitals across Gaza, including Al Shifa Hospital, the Gaza Strip’s largest before the war, and killed and injured health workers.
(Reporting by Nandita Bose; Writing by Brendan O’Boyle; Editing by Doina Chiacu)
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