Panic, Rage Grow as US Citizens Crowd Border Desperate to Finally Exit Gaza

About 400 U.S. citizens are expected to be allowed to leave Gaza on Thursday even as the situation deteriorates at the chaotic, crowded border crossing, amid Israeli ground and air attacks.

Dr. Hamdan Abu Speitan, a 76-year-old Palestinian-American physician from Syracuse, was among those waiting.

“All I can do is wait and pray,” he said.

“We’ve been displaced from our home. The situation is tough in Gaza,” Palestinian-American Shams Shaat told the BBC, “We’ve seen people displaced, children who lost their parents, burnt and decapitated bodies.”

Another Palestinian-American waiting to cross said, “I’m leaving a lot of people I love behind and I don’t know if I’m ever going to see them again.”

Dr. Fathi Abu al-Hassan, who has a U.S. passport, was waiting to cross into Egypt on Wednesday. He said there is no water, food or shelter in Gaza, according to Reuters.

"We open our eyes on dead people, and we close our eyes on dead people," he said.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken previously blamed Hamas for preventing hundreds of Americans and other civilians from leaving, but one American at the border claimed it was not Hamas that had kept them in Gaza.

“It's like they're holding us hostages — not Hamas holding us hostages, it's the IDF soldiers, Egypt and America. They're using us as a human shield in a way," Utah resident Susan Beseiso told CBS News.

An American doctor who was among the first Americans to leave Gaza Wednesday described chaos at the border crossing.

Dr. Barbara Zind was working with the Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund.

“Everyone rushed in and they were pressing the doors,” the Colorado pediatrician told ABC News. “People are frustrated. They’re desperate. People are angry. There were a couple of fistfights.”

Egypt will help evacuate "about 7,000" foreigners and dual nationals from the war-ravaged zone, the foreign ministry said.