A Seattle woman on a humanitarian aid mission to help children has escaped Gaza and is on her way back home.
Those trying to get back to the Seattle area from the region will have to take a flight to a city where there is a direct flight to the U.S., and then take a connecting flight to Sea-Tac Airport.The U.S., Israel, and Egypt are in talks to create safe passage out of Gaza for Americans.Seattle woman Ramona Okumura, with the Palestinian Children Relief Fund, is a volunteer.
Her niece, Akemi Hiatt, spoke with CNN about watching Okumura cross into Egypt at 5 a.m., Hawaiian time.Okumura is a former University of Washington lecturer who’s also an expert in making prosthetic limbs.We talked to her from afar about what she was experiencing in Gaza. “We’re in a safe place, as safe as we can be. We can hear the bombs hitting all around us,” she said. “Occasionally, there’s one that shakes the windows.”“It’s just a little 12-room hotel, but rockets and things were flying all over and they actually leveled a building 100 meters from where we stayed,” Okumura said. “The biggest problem we have is bombs are falling all around, rockets and missiles are falling all around, not to mention all the bullets and everything.
Ramona Okumura is retired and we’re hearing from others with similar backgrounds to hers that will go to Gaza to provide humanitarian relief. Many of them are Americans, and for days there have been reports that they may be able to get out of the area into Rafah, Egypt, in the Sinai Peninsula, which shares a border with Gaza.
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