As Gazans seek safety, Israel says Hamas ‘trying to prevent’ people fleeing
An Israel Defense Forces official says Hamas is “trying to prevent” people from fleeing Gaza, as civilians try to seek safety ahead of an expected Israeli ground offensive.
Lt.-Col. Peter Lerner, a spokesperson for the IDF, told The West Block’s Mercedes Stephenson on Sunday morning that there is “ongoing movement from north to south, which is a good thing because Hamas has been trying to prevent that.”
“They actually established roadblocks to prevent it. Yesterday, they orchestrated an explosive, what appears to be an explosive device, on the route of the evacuation. And they actually tried to blame that attack on Israel,” Lerner said.
“Israel had nothing to do with the deaths of people in the convoy that happened two days ago.”
He added: “Hamas had changed the rules of the game, or broken the rules of the game. And now we’re changing the game. Hamas will no longer be at the end of this. Hamas will no longer be around.”
Currently, there is no way out of Gaza for the roughly 2.3 million people living in the territory. The anticipated Saturday safe corridor at the Rafah Gate border crossing into Egypt never opened due to violence, Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly confirmed Saturday.
U.S. national security advisor Jake Sullivan said on CNN ‘s State of the Union on Sunday morning that the U.S. government has told Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi to open the border and let Americans out of Gaza. However, he said Hamas is presenting a challenge.
“The Egyptians have in fact agreed to allow Americans to depart, to get safe passage through the Rafah crossing. The Israelis agreed to ensure that the area around there would be safe, at least as far as they were able to do so. The question when we tried to move a group
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