19 May 2021, Wednesday, 18:05 145

Foreign Ministry Expects To Evacuate 127 Ukrainians From Gaza Strip Within 48 Hours

Редактор: Daria Zubkova

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs expects that 127 Ukrainians will be able to be evacuated from the Gaza Strip within 48 hours.

Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba announced this at a meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers, Ukrainian News Agency reports.

"Approximately 1,600 Ukrainians are currently in the Gaza Strip. The Israeli-Palestinian confrontation is now escalating, and there is a real threat to the life and health of our compatriots. 127 Ukrainian citizens have already expressed a desire to return to their homeland, to be evacuated ... If there are no force majeure events in connection with the aggravation of the conflict, then, according to our calculations, the evacuation will be carried out within 48 hours," he said.

According to him, citizens of Moldova, Belarus and two member states of the European Union wanted to evacuate together with the Ukrainians.

The Ukrainian Embassy in Israel has compiled lists of such citizens.

Kuleba said that an agreement was reached with the authorities of Israel and the Palestinian Authority on the organization of a green corridor for the evacuation.

“We have already worked out organizational issues with the Egyptian authorities. In pursuance of the instructions of the President of Ukraine, it was decided to carry out an evacuation as soon as possible by transporting our citizens from the territory of the Gaza Strip to Egypt and organizing an appropriate flight at the expense of the reserve fund of the budget of Ukraine,” he informed.

As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, the embassy in Israel reminds that entry into the country from Ukraine is now prohibited, and that Ukrainians already on its territory are advised to track messages from local authorities and take warning signals as real due to the escalation of the security situation because of the escalation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The recommendations were made after the combat wing of the Hamas terrorist group fired 130 missiles from the Gaza Strip into Tel Aviv and its environs on the night of May 11, and on the night of May 12 – over 100 missiles at Beersheba and over 100 missiles at Tel Aviv and Ben Gurion Airport.