228 more Ukrainian citizens given permission to leave Gaza Strip – ambassador
ФОТО: REUTERS
Ukraine has received permits for a total of 329 Ukrainians to leave the Gaza Strip, Ukrainian Ambassador to Israel Yevhen Korniychuk said.
Korniychuk said Ukraine had already received permission for evacuating 101 people three days ago.
"We received permission for 101 people three days ago, and the day before yesterday, in the evening we received additional permission for another 228 people. That is, we can talk about permits for 329 people in total. These permits are valid. I think that we will be able to get a few more permits, but not a lot, since the vast majority of our applications were reviewed by the Israeli side and agreed upon positively," Korniychuk said on the air of Suspilne.Sprotyv on Thursday morning.
Ukrainian diplomats estimate that about 500 citizens may remain in Gaza, possibly more. Since they are not registered, there is no contact with them.
The vast majority of the citizens requested by diplomats have moved from north to south of the Gaza Strip and are waiting to be evacuated.
An advanced group is at the Rafah checkpoint, where Ukrainian diplomats and military personnel stay on duty in shifts to ensure the passage of citizens.
The ambassador also explained that the evacuation was approved by Israel and Egypt, while people who are involved with Hamas terrorists are removed from the lists.
Ukrainians in Israel and Gaza
On 11 October, Ukrqine's Ambassador to Israel also said that the embassy had managed to organise the first evacuation flight for our citizens who remained in Israel.
Since the start of the war declared after the Hamas attack, Ukraine has evacuated 540 of its citizens from Israel, and about 4,000 Ukrainians have left the country since October 7 attack.
As of the end of October, 25 Ukrainian citizens had been killed in the war.
Following the Hamas terrorist group's attack on Israel in early October, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine set up an operational headquarters to help Ukrainians. Citizens were urged to pay close attention to all warnings and instructions from Tel Aviv.
On November 8, Ukraine successfully evacuated the first group of its citizens from the Gaza Strip, which included 43 people.
