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Wednesday, October 8, 2025
Trump aides worked to evacuate US Navy reservist’s mother from Gaza, report details
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US President Donald Trump’s administration was closely involved in the recent evacuation of a US Navy reservist’s mother from the Gaza Strip, The Washington Post reports.
Ahlam Firwana, 59, whose son Younis Firwana became a naturalized US citizen last year, was protected by surveillance assets and a “coordinated pause in Israeli military strikes” as she made her way from Gaza City to the Kerem Shalom border crossing on September 17, the newspaper says.
The effort, supported by the Special Operations Association of America veterans group, had involved US deputy Mideast envoy Morgan Ortagus, herself a Navy reservist, and top officials at the US Embassy in Jordan. The US National Security Council was also notified.
The veterans’ group has supported the evacuation of some 1,100 people from Gaza since the start of the war, according to the report.
A member of the organization used connections in the Israeli military and security agencies to ensure “they didn’t target [Firwana’s] location” as she was evacuating, he said.
A lawyer representing Palestinian-Americans seeking to get loved ones out of Gaza says the Trump administration has helped military families, but otherwise declined to aid in evacuations. The lawyer shares emails in which the US Embassy in Jerusalem cited “US national security” as a reason not to evacuate the children of Salsabeel Elhelou, a client of hers who is a US citizen.
The Trump administration announced in August it would halt visitor visas to people from Gaza, after far-right activist Laura Loomer called wounded Palestinian children and their caregivers arriving in the US a “national security threat.” Firwana, the reservist’s mother, is now in Jordan, seeking visa approval.
The Times of Israel Community.