WASHINGTON, October 24. /TASS/. The Biden administration is readying plans for the potential evacuation of hundreds of thousands of US citizens from the Middle East if the conflict between Palestine and Israel escalates, The Washington Post reported, citing sources.

More than 600,000 Americans living in Israel and Lebanon are of concern in what the newspaper said was a "worst-case scenario." It "would be irresponsible not to have a plan for everything," an official told the newspaper. Three officials familiar with discussions said that other outcomes are seen as more likely. Washington is deeply alarmed by the prospect of escalation amid a potential Israeli ground operation, the WaPo said. In recent days, the administration has turned its attention to the complicated logistics of abruptly having to evacuate a large number of people. When the Palestinian radical movement Hamas attacked, there were about 600,000 US nationals in Israel and another 86,000 in Lebanon, the newspaper writes.

In Lebanon, the US government is chiefly concerned over the militant group Hezbollah. "This has become a real issue," an official told the WaPo. "The administration is very, very, very worried that this thing is going to get out of hand," he added. Washington’s concern extends beyond the situation in Israel and Lebanon as street protests have spread across the Arab world. Senior US officials have been reluctant to discuss plans for mass evacuations in public, as they have sought to avoid provoking a panic among resident American nationals in the region, but their stance has recently changed which may indicate the anxiety about the conflict, the newspaper concluded.

Tensions in the Middle East flared up again on October 7 when Hamas militants launched a surprise incursion into Israeli territory from the Gaza Strip. The Palestinian movement described its attack as a response to the aggressive actions of Israeli authorities against the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem’s Old City. Israel declared a total siege of Gaza and started carrying out strikes on the Palestinian enclave, as well as on certain areas in Lebanon and Syria. Clashes are also taking place in the West Bank.