The Philippine government is set to evacuate more Filipinos from war-torn Gaza this week after 16 people have arrived home safely, an official said on Sunday.
Esteban Conejos, undersecretary of the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs, said at least 69 Filipinos have expressed their desire to be moved out from Gaza and return to the Philippines.
The Philippine consular team in Israel, which is responsible for the extraction of Filipinos trapped in the raging conflict between Israeli troops and the Hamas in Gaza, has yet to work out the schedule of evacuation with the Israeli authorities.
"We are in close contact with the Filipinos in Gaza and we will inform them of the next schedule of evacuation because the situation on the ground is very dangerous," Conejos said in a radio interview.
Sixteen of 17 evacuated Filipinos from Gaza arrived in Manila Friday after an escape from the war-ravaged Gaza Strip.
A Filipino nun, who was also evacuated by Filipino diplomats from Gaza, did not join the flight to Manila and now is in the care of a Latin patriarch in Jerusalem, Conejos said.
Ninety-one Filipinos stayed behind in Gaza, now gripped by ground fighting between Israeli troops and Hamas fighters, because they did not want to leave their Palestinian families, officials said.
The 17 Filipinos survived through a harrowing ordeal as they tried to escape the war in Gaza.
Their evacuation, first scheduled for Jan. 5, was twice called off because of heavy shelling, explosions and gunfire.
After getting the approval of the Israeli government, Philippine Embassy officials plucked the 17 Filipinos from their homes in central Gaza during lulls in heavy fighting, bringing them by bus to the Erez Crossing ---the only exit where frantic foreigners were allowed to leave en masse.
The UN Security Council called for an immediate Gaza cease-fire in a resolution Thursday night as fighting between Israel and the Hamas continued to rage with the death toll in the two-week conflict reaching 800. However, both sides continue to defy the UN call.
Source:Xinhua
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