Pinoys in Gaza asking for repatriation now 92 —DFA

A total of 92 Filipinos in Gaza have requested to be repatriated amid the war between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said on Friday.

“Out of the 131, up to 92 now are asking for repatriation and that's as of several hours ago. By now baka umakyat na. That's over 70%,” DFA Undersecretary Eduardo de Vega said in a Palace briefing.

“Not one has been repatriated yet because of the fact that Gaza is under a blockade,” he added.

Esty Buzgan, deputy chief of mission at the Israel Embassy in Manila, on Thursday said Israel now has no plan to lift the blockade it imposed on Gaza, which is home to around 2.3 million Palestinians.

This is despite the appeal of the United Nations and human rights groups to lift the blockade. The call was made for the delivery of aid to Gaza residents, including food, water, and electricity supply.

De Vega said that aside from the border with Israel, the Philippine government is also working on requesting humanitarian corridors through the border of Egypt.

“The Philippine government is working with diplomatic partners to seek humanitarian corridors to allow people to exit. Obviously, if not the border with Israel, through the Rafah border with Egypt,” he said.

Since the situation in Israel is “more stable” now, De Vega said the Philippine government will focus more on the Filipinos in Gaza, which President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. called “critical”.

“Right now the situation in Israel is more stable,  so our efforts are now concentrated on Gaza,” he said.

“In the President's words, what's critical now is Gaza and let's keep exploring all possible exit options,” he added.

Another possible challenge in the repatriation of Filipinos in Gaza is  the nationality of the children and grandchildren.

“You see, the spouses of the Filipinos are Palestinians. We cannot guarantee what Israel or Egypt will decide. So it may be a difficult decision,” De Vega said.

Meanwhile in Israel, 22 Filipinos requested for repatriation. For the first batch, eight are set to be repatriated on October 16, according to De Vega.

He said the repatriation of around 300 Pinoy agriculture students in Israel has started with the first batch of around 60 students who already arrived in the Philippines.

Three Filipinos were killed and three others were missing following the attack of Palestinian militant group Hamas on Israel.

Hamas militants carried out their deadliest attack in Israel's history on Saturday, when gunmen rampaged through Israeli towns, killing more than 1,000 people and taking scores of hostages to Gaza.

Israel has retaliated with air strikes on Gaza that have razed entire districts as it prepares for a possible ground offensive.

The Philippines on Thursday placed Gaza under Alert Level 3 while Alert Level 2 was raised over Israel and Palestine's West Bank.—AOL, GMA Integrated News