There was much relief in hearing that Hawaii-raised Ramona Okumura, 71, and hundreds of other foreign nationals had made it out of war-torn Gaza, after weeks of bombardments and uncertainty. Crossing into Egypt, she tweeted to relatives here early Wednesday: “Luv to everyone who helped get me out. Pray for the people of Gaza who now don’t have us as shields from harm.”

Indeed. Okumura, a prosthetics expert, was volunteering for a children’s amputee project in Gaza when war broke out Oct. 7 between Israel and Hamas. She and many hundreds of foreigners are now out of harm’s way, but tragically, hundreds of thousands of Gazans are not.