Over 40 Filipinos repatriated from Israel — DMW

More than 40 Filipinos from Israel have returned to the Philippines as Manila continues to repatriate and provide assistance to distressed migrant workers amid tensions in the Middle East.

The Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) said a total of 44 repatriates arrived on Friday afternoon at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.

They are composed of 36 female overseas Filipino workers (OFWs), six male workers, and two dependents.

According to its statement late Friday evening, officials and representatives from the DMW and the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) greeted the arriving repatriates.

"Upon arrival, the OFWs received financial assistance under AKSYON Fund of the DMW and livelihood assistance from OWWA," the department said.

Violence erupted between Israel and Hamas on October 7, 2024 after the Palestinian Islamist group launched deadly attacks on southern Israel.

According to a Reuters report, the attack killed 1,200 people, in the worst one-day loss of life in Israel's history, and saw 251 people taken into Gaza as hostages. The Israeli campaign, meanwhile, has killed more than 48,000 Palestinians, displaced almost all of its 2.3 million population, and left Gaza a wasteland.

Israel recently blocked the entry of aid trucks into Gaza as a standoff over the truce that has halted fighting for the past weeks escalated, with Hamas calling on Egyptian and Qatari mediators to intervene. — VDV, GMA Integrated News