Israel, US secretly rescue mother of US naval doctor out of Gaza

Israel, Jordan, and US pull off secret 19-hour rescue mission to evacuate the mother of an American naval doctor from Gaza.

By World Israel News Staff

A Gaza woman was recently extracted from the war-torn coastal enclave in a complex multinational rescue operation that saw cooperation among Israel, Jordan, and the Trump administration.

Last month, 59-year-old Ahlam Firwana was spirited out of the Gaza Strip after her son, a medic in the US Navy, secured a visa enabling her to enter the United States, The Washington Post reported on Tuesday, marking the first time the story was publicly disclosed.

The medic, 32-year-old Petty Officer Younis Firwana, enlisted in the Navy in 2023, seeking a path to citizenship.

In February 2024, Firwana was naturalized, enabling him to petition for his family in Gaza to be given permission to immigrate to the United States.

For the past year and a half, Firwana has sought approval to bring his mother and six siblings to the United States.

While immigration officials approved his mother’s entry into the country, Firwana was unable to find anyone who could guide her to the Israeli border crossing.

Complicating matters further, Ahlam’s passport had expired.

Firwana appealed to the Special Operations Association of America, a veterans group that has aided about 1,100 people in exiting the Gaza Strip since 2023.

A member of the SOAA, Alex Plitsas, put together a team to facilitate Ahlam’s evacuation.

Plitsas turned to high-level Trump administration officials, including Morgan Ortagus, the White House deputy special envoy to the Middle East.

A former Navy reservist, Ortagus in turn reached out to the US Embassy in Jordan, which secured assistance from the Jordanian government.

A member of Plitsas’ team, former US Army Colonel Steve Gabavics, used his connections with Israeli security agencies to enlist IDF cooperation.

The evacuation was carried out in mid-September, as Israel ramped up its military operations in Gaza City, which saw a mass exodus of residents from the northern Gaza Strip, where Ahlam Firwana lived.

As part of the rescue operation, Israel suspended its airstrikes in parts of the northern Gaza Strip – undertaking a “coordinated pause in Israeli military strikes” – to create a safe passage for Ahlam to the Kerem Shalom border crossing on the Israeli frontier, according to the Washington Post report.

A plan to secure transportation for Ahlam to Kerem Shalom ultimately failed, as local roads were overwhelmed by the movement of Gazans southward.

Instead, Ahlam made her way to the border on foot, while Israel monitored her progress to ensure that no strikes were carried out in her vicinity.

On September 17, Ahlam reached the Kerem Shalom crossing extraction point. From there, she was transported to Jordan, where she awaits final approval for her US visa.

According to the Post, Washington has refused to grant entry to Firwana’s siblings because of what the US Embassy in Jerusalem called “national security” concerns. The report did not elaborate on what concerns were raised.