The United States has been able to get 74 Americans with dual citizenship out of the Gaza Strip, Joe Biden said at the White House on Thursday, one day after evacuees began crossing into Egypt. “Good news, we got out today 74 American folks, dual citizens,” the president told reporters in the Oval Office at the start of a meeting with the president of the Dominican Republic, Luis Abinader. Biden had said US citizens would on Wednesday be able to start leaving Gaza, a narrow strip under Israeli bombardment. Further details were not immediately available on who had been able to leave Gaza and when. Biden has thrown his support behind Israel – and visited the country last month – but has shifted his response in recent weeks as the humanitarian situation worsens in Gaza and the civilian death toll rises. Gaza health authorities say more than 9,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli strikes in the narrow coastal territory since 7 October, when Hamas killed 1,400 Israelis and took more than 220 captive.