A Palestinian woman from Gaza was secretly evacuated from the war-torn enclave in recent weeks with the intervention of the Trump administration and the assistance of Israel and Jordan. The reason: her son, a U.S. serviceman who joined the Navy in 2023 to earn American citizenship.
According to The Washington Post, the rescue of Ahlam Firwana, 59, required the direct involvement of senior U.S. officials, a specialized tracking app, and even a temporary halt to Israeli airstrikes in the areas she crossed.
The report said that, since the outbreak of the war on October 7, many U.S. citizens and their families have complained that Washington has not done enough to help extract Americans from Gaza. Firwana’s son, Younis, enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 2023, while his mother and six siblings remained trapped in Gaza. He said the family’s seven-story home was flattened in an airstrike last year, leaving them without food or shelter. “At one point, they were eating bird food,” he told the paper.
Younis officially became a U.S. citizen in February 2024, on the day he completed basic training. “At the graduation ceremony, they told me to stand under the Jordanian flag because the U.S. doesn’t recognize the Palestinian flag,” he recalled. Now serving as a medic in California, he began working to arrange his mother’s evacuation to Jordan. Although he managed to secure authorization for her entry into the U.S., he could not find anyone to escort her out of Gaza or renew her passport. “They told me their hands were tied,” he said of American officials.
Desperate, Younis contacted a veterans’ organization that linked him to senior figures in the Trump administration. The effort was taken up by the U.S. Embassy in Amman, with a special “rescue team” assembled to coordinate the operation.
The team included retired U.S. Army Col. Steve Gabavics, who served in Jerusalem from 2001 to 2004 as chief of staff to the U.S. security coordinator for Israel and the Palestinian Authority. Gabavics said he used his old contacts in the IDF, Shin Bet and Mossad to secure safe passage for Firwana. Conversations with Israeli officials focused on ensuring the military would not strike the area she was traveling through, creating what he called a “deconfliction zone” to protect the rescue team.
Another team member, Alex Plitsas, reached out to former State Department spokesperson and current Trump administration Middle East envoy Morgan Ortagus, who herself served in the U.S. Navy. Ortagus connected them with senior diplomats at the U.S. Embassy in Jordan. A U.S. official credited the embassy’s staff in Amman for the mission’s success, saying they “went above and beyond to get Firwana out of Gaza.”
The operation was led on the ground by veteran soldier Ben Clay, an expert in special operations, who said he used a custom app he developed to chart safe evacuation routes. When plans for an Israeli military escort fell through due to delays in securing approvals, the group of veterans raised about $10,000 to hire a local team to guide Firwana safely to the Kerem Shalom crossing.
That plan, too, nearly failed when Israel ordered the evacuation of Gaza City last month. One of Firwana’s sons tried to drive her to the crossing, but the evacuation routes were jammed with cars. Ultimately, she had to walk 14 kilometers to Kerem Shalom, monitored by drones and under what sources described as a temporary “pause in airstrikes” around her route.
After 19 hours, she crossed into Egypt and then Jordan, where she is now waiting for a visa to enter the United States.
Jordan’s ambassador to the U.S., Dina Kawar, confirmed her country’s role, saying Amman was “pleased to help” as part of its ongoing humanitarian efforts.