A US serviceman's mother and uncle are saved from Gaza in a covert operation

 WASHINGTON (AP) – According to a U.S. official who spoke to The Associated Press on Wednesday, the mother and American uncle of a U.S. military member were safe outside of Gaza after being saved from the fighting in a covert operation organized by the United States, Israel, Egypt, and others.

During the months of horrific ground combat and Israeli airstrikes in Gaza, this is the first known operation of its kind to evacuate American civilians and their immediate family members. In the early weeks of the conflict, the great majority of those who managed to escape northern and central Gaza via the Rafah crossing into Egypt headed south. Since then, it has been much riskier and more difficult to flee via fierce battle from the center of Palestinian land.

According to a U.S. official who spoke to The Associated Press, Zahra Sckak, 44, and her American citizen brother-in-law Farid Sukaik successfully left Gaza on New Year's Eve. The official confirmed the rescue, which had been kept under wraps for security concerns, while speaking under anonymity.

Abedalla Sckak, the spouse of Sckak, was shot earlier in the Israel-Hamas conflict while the family was fleeing a building that had been struck by an airstrike. A few days later, he passed away. Spec. Ragi A. Sckak, 24, one of her three American kids, is an infantryman in the US military.

According to the U.S. official, the extraction involved the Israeli military as well as local Israeli officials in charge of Gaza and the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Nothing suggested that American representatives were present in gaza.

According to the official, "the United States acted as the only point of contact and coordination between the Sckak family and the governments of Egypt and Israel."

Sckak and Sukaik were reported by a family member and American attorneys and supporters representing the family as being held down in a building surrounded by fighters, with little to no food and only water from drains to drink.

The details of the operation on the ground were not readily available. It happened as a result of persistent requests for assistance from Congressmen and the Biden administration made by Sckak's family and American citizen organizations.

According to the State Department, about 300 American citizens, lawful permanent residents, and members of their immediate families are still in Gaza, where they are vulnerable to airstrikes, ground combat, and growing famine.thirst in the besieged territory.

Those who remain in the territory face a hazardous and occasionally unfeasible journey to Egypt's border crossing out of Gaza, as well as a bureaucratic battle for authorization from the United States, Egypt, and Israel to remove themselves, their parents, and small children from Gaza. There is no known official American presence on the ground.