More than 600 Americans have been stuck in Gaza since the latest conflict there began in early October.
Some Americans in Israel have been able to leave with the help of the U.S. State Department, but Palestinians have had little chance to get out.
Now, in a letter to the U.S. Secretary of State, Governor Whitmer is requesting an update on Michigan residents still in the war zone. Whitmer writes that numerous Michiganders have family members in Gaza.
Experts estimate roughly 800,000 people have been killed by Israeli airstrikes in the region, and others have been displaced.
Whitmer recently cancelled a speech set for a fundraising event in Dearborn for a free health care clinic. Arab American activists planned to protest Whitmer’s visit, because she has not called for a ceasefire in Gaza or, in the activist’s view, shown sufficient concern for Palestinians.
Whitmer said in a statement that she did not want her speech in Dearborn to create a distraction, and pledged to ask members of Congress to “bring families stranded in Gaza back home to Michigan."