The clock is ticking Monday morning on the humanitarian disaster unfolding in Gaza City — where the power grid and other basic utilities remain cut off.
Overnight, a corridor was supposed to open through the Rafah Crossing — a border crossing between Gaza and Egypt. Hundreds of thousands of people are trying to escape the violence in Gaza.
The Palestinian Embassy said that foreign national Palestinians – including Americans – would be able to cross the border into Egypt starting at 9 a.m. local time Monday – which would have been 2 a.m. EST.
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However, NBC News reports that the situation at the border crossing is unclear. There is no word at this point on how long it will be open.
This is also when humanitarian aid should have begun crossing into Gaza -- ahead of an expected Israeli ground invasion.
The United Nations is reporting that more than 1 million people – more than half of Gaza’s estimated population – has been displaced due to the fighting.
In the meantime, the State Department has started chartering flights — and the U.S. Embassy says there’s a ship of U.S. Nationals leaving Monday morning. U.S. officials say the main focus remains finding and rescuing American hostages.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken will return to Israel Monday, as he continues his six-nation diplomatic tour — urging countries in the Middle East to work together to keep the war from expanding.
More than 2,400 people have been killed in Gaza, while roughly 1,400 people have been killed in Israel.
Those numbers include 30 Americans, with at least 13 still missing.
On 60 Minutes Sunday night, President Joe Biden said he spoke personally with families of those U.S. citizens who remain unaccounted for on Zoom.
"I'm saying we're gonna do everything in our power to find those who are still alive and set them free," President Biden said. "Everything in our power. And, I'm not gonna go into the detail of that, but there's, we're working like hell on it."
Congressman Seth Moulton says this is obviously a delicate operation – trying to get Americans out of Israel and Gaza.
“I think this is going to have to be a continual negotiation with Egypt," Congressman Moulton said. "Of course, now we have a lot of leverage over Egypt because of the military aid that we provide every year. But we also want to keep them on our side. So it's not like you just come in with a big hammer and say, you know, do this right away. But this is an incredibly complex situation. And I know how painful it is for families here in America. If you have loved ones in Israel or in the Gaza Strip, you have loved ones in a war zone.”
Israeli forces, supported by a growing deployment of U.S. warships in the region and the call-up of some 360,000 reservists, positioned themselves along Gaza’s border and drilled for what Israel said would be a broad campaign to dismantle the militant group.
