5 Filipinos from West Bank safely crossed to Jordan, says embassy

Five Filipinos have successfully crossed West Bank to Jordan amid the ongoing armed conflict between Israel and the militant group Hamas, the Philippine Embassy in Jordan said.

"The Philippine Embassy provided transportation to the five Filipinos, who were fetched at their respective residences in the West Bank and brought to the Allenby border crossing on the Israeli side, where they were met and assisted by Amman PE officers and personnel who facilitated their entry to Jordan through the King Hussein bridge crossing," the embassy said on Facebook.

The five Filipinos, who crossed the border on Wednesday, are bound to return to the Philippines on Thursday, it added.

Embassy officials, led by Ambassador Jordan Wilfredo Santos, met with King Hussein Border Authority Head Col. Rafat Al Maietah to discuss the possible crossing of more Filipinos from the West Bank when the situation in the area further escalates. 

The first batch of Filipino repatriates from West Bank arrived in the Philippines on November 9.

Violence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, already at a more than 15-year high this year, has surged further since the Israel-Hamas war began, with more than 170 attacks on Palestinians involving Jewish settlers recorded by the United Nations.  

Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Middle East war and it has been under military occupation since, while Israeli settlements have consistently expanded. Palestinians envisage the West Bank as part of a future independent state also including Gaza and East Jerusalem.

Israel launched the strikes after Hamas gunmen launched a cross-border southern Israel on October 7, killing over 1,000 people and taking more than 200 hostages.

France last week condemned violence by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank, calling it a "policy of terror" aimed at displacing Palestinians and urging Israeli authorities to protect Palestinians from the violence.

UN figures show that daily settler attacks have more than doubled, since the Hamas attacks on Israel on Oct. 7 and the ensuing assault on the Palestinian enclave of Gaza. —KBK, GMA Integrated News