The mother and uncle of a US service member were rescued from the fighting in Gaza in a secret operation coordinated by the US, Israel, Egypt and others, according to a US official speaking to the Associated Press.
It is the only known operation of its kind to extract American citizens and their close family members during the months of devastating ground fighting and Israeli airstrikes in Gaza.
Zahra Sckak, 44, made it out of Gaza on New Year’s Eve, along with her brother-in-law, Farid Sukaik – who is an American citizen – a US official told the Associated Press. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to confirm the rescue, which had been kept quiet for security reasons.
Sckak’s husband, Abedalla Sckak, was shot earlier in the war as the family fled from a building hit by an airstrike. He died days later. One of her three American sons, Ragi A. Sckak, 24, serves as an infantryman in the US military.
The extraction involved the Israeli military and local Israeli officials, the US official told AP. There was no indication that American officials were on the ground in Gaza.
“The United States played solely a liaison and coordinating role between the Sckak family and the governments of Israel and Egypt,” the official said.
A family member and US-based lawyers and advocates working on the family’s behalf had described Sckak and Sukaik as pinned down in a building surrounded by combatants, with little or no food and with only water from sewers to drink.
There were few immediate details of the on-the-ground operation. It took place after extended appeals from Sckak’s family and US-based groups for help from Congress members and the Biden administration.
The state department has said about 300 American citizens, legal permanent residents and their immediate family members remain in Gaza, at risk from ground fighting, airstrikes and widening starvation and thirst in the besieged territory.