US urges Americans to leave Gaza ‘as soon as possible’

24 August 2016, 4:30 pm

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The United States is recommending that Americans in Gaza leave the territory, which is controlled by the Hamas terror group, “as soon as possible.”

The warning comes after the IAF strikes dozens of targets in Gaza overnight Sunday-Monday following rocket fire from the Strip on the southern city of Sderot.

A Palestinian man inspects rubble in Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip on August 22, 2016, following an Israeli airstrike the night before that targeted Hamas positions in response to a rocket fired from the Palestinian enclave that hit the Israeli city of Sderot. (Mahmud Hams/AFP)

In the case of Gaza, the State Department warns against “all travel” to the territory and “urges those present to depart as soon as possible when border crossings are open.”

“Gaza is under the control of Hamas, a foreign terrorist organization. The security environment within Gaza and on its borders is dangerous and volatile,” the State Department says in its warning.

It issued a similar warning in December 2015.

— Agencies