'They're optimistic they're going to get out': Elgin native, family remain trapped in Gaza
An Elgin native and her family — including five young children — are among hundreds of Americans trapped in southern Gaza apprehensively awaiting the chance to escape through the sealed Rafah crossing into Egypt.
Emilee Abuhamad Rauschenberger — who is the niece of Elgin City Council member Carol Rauschenberger — along with her husband, Mohammed Abu Hamad, and their children ages 4 to 13 are staying in crowded three-bedroom home with 25 others while they hope for the chance to leave the war-torn area.
Though their primary residence is Manchester, England, the family has been living in Amman, Jordan, while Emilee worked under a two-year contract related to her international education qualifications.
They had traveled from Jordan to visit her husband's family on an olive tree farm in Abasan Al-Kabira, Gaza when Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7.
Emilee's father, John Rauschenberger, said an estimated 450 Americans are in the same situation as his daughter, son-in-law and grandchildren.
The latest efforts to speed their exit includes a letter Wednesday from Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi of Schaumburg to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
“If they all get out, she gets out,” said John Rauschenberger, who now lives in Naples, Florida. “She's focused. She's steadfast, pragmatic and positive. They're optimistic they're going to get out, but when?”
Diplomatic efforts have been slow in getting Egypt to allow foreign nationals through the border while safeguarding against Palestinian refugees passing through as well, John Rauschenberger said.
In the meantime, his daughter and family are among 31 people in a home without electricity or water in southern Gaza.
“The bombing is increasing in the south where they are,” Emilee's aunt Carol said Wednesday.
John said they've been able to be in touch via phone and internet for about an hour a day, through a power source replenished by small solar panels in the windows.
While they don't believe the area they're in will be deliberately targeted, they fear errant missiles, John said. Over just a few weeks, the family has learned to distinguish among the sound of drones and deadlier objects flying above their heads.
The family had been excited about the prospect of relocating to the U.S. next spring, but the short-term goal of crossing into Egypt has become much more important, John said.
While condemning the actions of Hamas and expressing relief for the release of some of its hostages, the Rauschenberger family said the innocents trapped in Gaza are like hostages themselves.
The theme is echoed in Krishnamoorthi's letter to Blinken, in which the plight of Emilee and her family is used as a specific example.
“Though Rafah was opened to allow some humanitarian aid in, the crossing is still closed to Americans and civilians trying to leave, and I am extremely concerned for their safety and well-being,” Krishnamoorthi wrote. “I urge you to continue to work to bring my constituents' family members and others home.”
“I welcome the news that the State Department has worked with Egypt, Israel, and the UN to allow some aid to go through Rafah, and I urge you to work to ensure additional aid that is on standby at the Egyptian side of Rafah be allowed to enter soon as possible,” Krishnamoorthi told Blinken.