WASHINGTON — Six American citizens who were serving in the Israeli security forces have died in Israel and Gaza since October 7, State Department spokesperson Matt Miller said Monday.

“There are a total of six American citizens who have died, not from the terrorist attacks on October 7, but in the month-plus since,” said Miller. Five of them were members of the Israel Defense Forces and the sixth was a border officer, he said.

Four of the Americans serving with the IDF died in the Gaza Strip and a fifth was killed in northern Israel, the spokesperson said.

According to Miller, 800 American citizens, legal permanent residents and family members have now departed Gaza through the Rafah crossing with Egypt.

The number of Americans who remain in the enclave — who have registered with the State Department — has increased to 1,200.

On Friday, a State Department official said there were fewer than 900.

“One of the things that happens is we continue to identify either additional American citizens or American citizens or permanent residents who have additional family members that they're reporting to us that we then try to get on the list to get out of Gaza,” Miller said, noting why the 1,200 remaining is a higher number than it had been previously.

Miller said the United States “would welcome China playing a constructive role in the Middle East."

Miller noted that Secretary of State Antony Blinken had “made this clear personally” in conversations with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.

Still, Miller stressed that “one of the things that we heard repeatedly from every party with which we engaged on our last trip is the indispensability of the United States in every aspect of this conflict, whether it comes to getting humanitarian assistance and whether it comes to preventing the conflict from widening.”

He noted that it was the US that was able to negotiate an agreement to begin delivering humanitarian assistance to Gaza after October 7, “the United States that was able to push forward and achieve humanitarian pauses” to allow civilians to move about Gaza, and the US that is “the largest humanitarian donor to the Palestinian people.”

On Monday, Wang met counterparts from Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, the Palestinian National Authority and Indonesia, as well as the head of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, in Beijing for talks on “de-escalating” the Israel-Hamas conflict. — CNN