R 041512Z FEB 09
FM AMEMBASSY CAIRO
TO SECSTATE WASHDC 1549

UNCLAS CAIRO 000205 
 
 
FOR CA/OCS/ACS/NESA KIM RICHTER, CA/OCS/CM KAREN ZARESKI, DS/IP/NEA, 
NEA/IPA AND NEA/ELA 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: CASC PREL PTER ASEC KPAL EG
SUBJECT: LESSONS LEARNED FROM EMBASSY CAIRO'S EVACUATION OF AMERICAN 
CITIZENS FROM GAZA 
 
¶1. Summary:  Embassy Cairo evacuated four families with American 
citizens and family members entitled to immigrant visas, and 
assisted in the evacuation of over 100 foreign nationals on January 
19, 2009.  The evacuation went smoothly and lessons learned follow. 
End Summary. 
 
¶2. On January 19, 2009 sixteen Embassy Cairo employees assembled at 
0415 at the Embassy in order to evacuate four American families and 
over 100 foreign nationals from Gaza.  Fighting in Gaza had closed 
the borders and trapped these evacuees in a dangerous situation. 
Embassy Tel Aviv had organized the evacuation of foreign nationals 
within Gaza, and Embassy Cairo had assumed the task of coordinating 
the various missions from the Rafah border back to Cairo.  Weeks of 
negotiations between embassies in Cairo and the Egyptian MFA and MoI 
had resulted in clearances for the foreign nationals to cross into 
Egypt. 
 
¶3. Lesson 1 - check, check and recheck.  Embassy Cairo worked with 
Embassy Tel Aviv on a possible International Committee of the Red 
Crescent (ICRC) escort within Gaza for our evacuees.  In the end the 
ICRC did not have the resources to provide escort, and many of the 
foreign evacuees chose not to go at the last minute due to security 
concerns about the safety of travel within Gaza.  This was out of 
our control, but in future we should be very blunt with other 
missions that escort inside Gaza is not guaranteed and evacuees 
should plan accordingly.  We also brought our satellite phone with 
us to test at Rafah.  We and RSO tried to make it work, but we were 
not successful.  In the future we will check on our sat phone before 
we have a crisis! 
 
¶4. Embassy Cairo assessed the security situation in Rafah ahead of 
time and determined appropriate procedures for the trip.  Embassy 
Cairo sent the Consul General, ACS Chief, three experienced ACS LES, 
three A/RSOs and two RSO LES, in addition to three Embassy drivers 
familiar with the drive to Rafah to assist in the evacuation.  GSO 
provided immense support in logistics and arranging for two large 
buses for the convoy.  Embassy Cairo brought ample supplies of 
water, food, diapers, toilet paper and paper towels, as well as the 
DS-3072 (Evacuation Documentation) and our ever-trustworthy 
blackberries. 
 
¶5. Four foreign consuls accompanied us in the US Embassy vans due to 
lack of their own personal transportation.  The other 10 missions 
who wished to participate in the evacuation followed our motorcade 
in 20 additional vehicles.  Needless to say this made for an 
extremely long convoy, but to our surprise it held together for the 
entire six-hour trip to Rafah with no issues en route. 
 
¶6. Lesson 2 - Think locally.  Once at the Rafah border we quickly 
learned our second lesson - all lists of evacuee names should be 
provided in writing translated into the local language.  Every 
mission present had their lists in English, and we all spent time on 
arrival handwriting the lists in Arabic at the request of the border 
officials. 
 
¶7. Lesson 3 - Prepare to wait.  Despite three weeks of 
pre-clearances and umpteen assurances that our citizens would cross 
at the border with no difficulty, we had to start almost from 
scratch upon arrival at Rafah.  After submitting our lists we 
waited, and waited, and waited.  Finally buses began to arrive with 
foreign nationals.  We cannot stress enough the importance of LES in 
this evacuation.  Their language skills and ability to cross 
cultural barriers with the border control officers were invaluable 
in getting our citizens across.  We were the only mission to 
successfully get all of our evacuees out.  Every other mission had 
to leave citizens behind due to lack of planning, lack of 
communication or lack of influence with the Egyptian authorities. 
Taking the time over the last year to build relationships with GoE 
officials meant that we could call on those contacts in this time of 
need. 
 
¶8. Lesson 4 - Always bring your tools.  Hours into the process our 
one stumbling block was the lack of documentation for an eight-month 
old baby who could not get a passport due to the fighting and 
restrictions on travel.  In the end the ACS Chief convinced the 
passport authorities to let her write a statement that she would be 
responsible for all of the Americans entering Egypt.  She wrote the 
statement, sealed it with her portable hand seal, and the problem 
was solved.  It sounds strange, but without the hand seal it is not 
clear whether the authorities would have let the Amcits enter.  Six 
long hours after arriving in Rafah we departed with 10 Amcits, 9 
Romanian citizens, 5 Turkish citizens and 5 Irish citizens in our 
vehicles, plus over 100 other nationals, who departed with their 
Consuls seperately.  We all arrived back in Cairo around 2300, tired 
but satisfied with a successful mission completed. 
 
Scobey