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The mother of a Palestinian-American Navy officer was secretly rescued from Gaza City in a deal between the Trump administration, Israel, and Jordan, according to a new report.
Ahlam Firwana, 59 — the mother of Navy medic Younis Firawana — underwent a highly coordinated evacuation in September that included sophisticated software to avoid any Israeli airstrikes as she made her way out of the war-torn Gaza Strip, the Washington Post reported.
Younis, 32, told the outlet he was grateful that so many high ranking officials came together to save his mother, including ambassadors, veterans organizations and Trump’s deputy special envoy to the Middle East Morgan Ortagus.
“That means a lot, that these guys care about my family,” he said. “I’m not alone.”
Younis, who joined the Navy in 2023 prior to the start of the war in Gaza, said he was desperately applying to get his family out of the war zone when he graduated boot camp and became a citizen in early 2024.
While he was able to secure a visa for his mother, Younis quickly learned that escorting her out of Gaza would be nearly impossible as the war between Israel and Hamas raged on.
The Palestinian-American was eventually connected with Special Operations Association of America (SOAA), a veterans group that has helped more than 1,000 people evacuate from Gaza since the war began, according to WaPo.
Ben Clay, an Army Special Operations veteran, led the extraction operation, which included using $10,000 in donated funds to hire ground transportation to move Firwana out of Gaza City, which was being surrounded by Israel.
Fortunately for the mother and the extraction team, Steve Gabavics — a retired Army colonel who served as the chief of staff for the US Security Coordinator for Israel and the Palestinian Authority — was able to use his connections to secure a safe route.
Gabavics told WaPo his contacts in the Israeli military and intelligence offices relayed the plan to make sure the army “didn’t target her location” and form a security buffer around the extraction team so they would not be hit by an airstrike.
When it was time to enact the plan, however, the hired transportation was unable to reach Firwana amid the chaos inside Gaza City, forcing one of her other sons to find a vehicle and drive her as close to the Kerem Shalom border as possible.
Due to the high traffic from fleeing Palestinians, Firwana had to abandon the car and walk nine miles on foot to reach the border, all while her location was protected from above by surveillance assets.
The 19-hour journey ended on Sept. 17 with Jordan officials welcoming the Firwana to their country, with the SOAA sending out a celebratory message to all collaborators involved reading, “SHE”S OUT!,” according to the WaPo.
The SOAA did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.
Firwana is currently living in Jordan as she awaits for her trip to America to be processed, with the mom eager to be reunited with her son, who has a wife and three daughters.
While Younis said he was happy that his mother was safe, he’s still waiting for approval to see his siblings evacuated from the Gaza Strip.
The Navy medic said he hopes that such operations won’t require the extraordinary effort that saw his mother rescued.
