Welcome to the lead, I'm Jake Tapper, and we start today, of course, with our world

lead.

And new warnings about the rapidly deteriorating humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

Today, U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken returned to Israel after meeting with multiple

allies throughout the Middle East, trying to get a humanitarian quarter open for innocents

to evacuate from Gaza before Israel ramps up its attacks on Hamas.

Right now, Israel is pointing those civilians towards the southern gate into Egypt, what's

known as the Rafa crossing, which at this point still appears to be closed.

Video from this morning shows dozens of families, including babies, waiting next to locked gates.

A U.S. government memo shows more than 250 U.S. citizens also in southern Gaza, waiting for

the Rafa crossing to open.

Now while earlier reports suggested that it was the Egyptian government refusing to open

the gate, when I pressed the National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan on this issue yesterday,

he blamed the closure on an altogether different group.

The Egyptians have, in fact, agreed to allow Americans to depart, to get safe passage

through the Rafa crossing.

The Israelis agreed to ensure that the area around there would be safe, at least as far

as they were able to do so.

The question, when we tried to move a group yesterday, was actually Hamas taking steps

to try and stop that from happening.

Trucks packed with aid for innocents and civilians in Gaza are lined up in Egypt right now.

They are waiting for the green light to go into Gaza.

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