(UPDATE) 17 Filipinos escape from Gaza
abs-cbnNEWS.com | 01/08/2009 5:33 PM
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Seventeen Filipinos, including 13 children and a nun, trapped due to the conflict in Gaza have arrived at Amman, Jordan after their successful evacuation and are awaiting for their flight back to the Philippines Thursday.
The Filipino evacuees, who were among the 250 foreigners evacuated from the territory, crossed into Israeli territory through the Erez Crossing, a pedestrian exit from the Gaza strip to Israel, where they were met by officials from the Philippine Embassy in Tel Aviv led by Philippine Ambassador to Israel Petronila Garcia and Labor Attaché Miriam Quasay.
The evacuees' papers were processed by immigration authorities for around two hours before they were able to enter the border crossing.
From the Erez Crossing, the Filipino evacuees reached Amman via the Allenby Bridge crossing 10 p.m. Philippine time.
The evacuees are expected to depart Jordan anytime soon and will reportedly be accompanied by Special Presidential Envoy to the Middle East Roy Cimatu.
The Filipinos will take a flight from the capital Amman to Manila via Bangkok.
Among the Filipino evacuees were Nenita Hamudi and her four children, Leila Chavez Salama and her five children, Annabel Abu Hassira and her four children and Sis. Valeria Rossilo.
Hamudi, Salama, and Hassira all have Palestinian husbands, and their children have dual Filipino and Palestinian citizenships.
Hamudi said it was painful that they had to leave behind their Palestinian husbands but they feared for the safety of their families amid the constant air strikes.
Garcia meanwhile thanked the Israeli Defense Forces for helping the evacuees escape from Gaza, and the Jordanian government for providing the evacuees transit visas.
Apprehension
Earlier Thursday, Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Esteban Conejos said an International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) convoy of six buses brought the 250 foreign evacuees to the Erez Crossing, after which Philippine Embassy personnel accompanied the evacuees to the Allenby Bridge crossing.
In an interview Thursday on ANC's Dateline Philippines, Conejos disclosed that a new attempt to evacuate Filipinos who want to leave Gaza was taking place Thursday following the foiled attempt last Monday.
"I won't go into specifics but I can only say, as we speak now, the operations are on-going. Before I came here, I checked it out with our ambassador, it's on-going now and I hope it will really continue to lead to a successful conclusion. Just because we started the operation does not mean it will be concluded," he said.
"We are going to attempt another extraction today. There is a 6-hour difference between Manila and Gaza, so we hope, towards the end of this afternoon, we would know if this extraction would be successful," he said.
He expressed apprehension that the evacuation will again be stalled since even the brief, three-hour ceasefire that was meant to bring in humanitarian goods into Gaza broke down Thursday.
'Like a movie'
Last Monday, Conejos said the five Fiipinos who actually got on the bus to try to cross the southern border to Israel nearly made it. Just 200 to 300 meters away from the border, a bomb exploded near the bus, creating a crater and preventing the bus from proceeding to its destination.
"The bus couldn't traverse to the other side. So we had a choice of letting the evacuees go down and walk the extra 200 meters. But that would have exposed them to hostile fire. So immediately, we made a decision, no, go back inside the bus, turn around, wait for another day," he said. "it was really like a movie. Our people from the Tel Aviv embassy were on the other side. They could see them coming already, very, very close, and then this thing happened."
There are 108 Filipinos in Gaza, but only 69 have indicated willingness to be repatriated to the Philippines. Only five of the 69 eventually joined the trip last Monday.
"About six hours before into the operations, only 11 confirmed. One hour into the operations, only 5 said they'd go. So I said, oh, no. But even then, let's go with the five," he said. "But again, we cannot make a decision for them. It's their responsibility. They have to take that decision. So all we are doing is provide them with an opportunity to get out from Gaza."
He said most of the Filipinos have opted to stay in Gaza despite the dangers since "Israel will not allow their Palestinian husbands to go with them, so most of them stayed behind."
The evacuation plan involves a bus that will be escorted by the International Red Cross from Gaza to Erez, Israel. From there, Philippine embassy personnel will escort them to the border with Jordan. And from the border, they will be escorted to Amman, the capital of Jordan. From Amman, a Royal Jordanian airplane will bring them to the Philippines after a stopover in Bangkok, Thailand.
Jordanian authorities have agreed to give the Filipinos entry visas to facilitate their exit from Gaza as long as they leave Jordan within 24 hours.
The Department of Foreign Affairs has bought open tickets for all 69 Filipinos who originally expressed intention to leave Gaza.
Conejos said safety is the primordial concern in the evacuation, and the recommendation of the Red Cross on whether to proceed or not is a key input in the decision-making process.
Still Pinoys
Unlike the evacuation of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) in Lebanon, Conejos said most of the Filipinos in Gaza are Filipino citizens despite having lived in Palestine for many years.
"In Lebanon, we all had OFWs, so definitely, we are talking of Filipinos who have actually lived for 15, 20 years in Gaza, who have married to Palestinians and who have actually raised children there. In fact, their children don't have any connection whatsover with our government. In fact, some people were asking me: how come we are taking them? Because they remain to be Filipinos and they are in distress. That's our job to take them out," Conejos said.
Conejos said that since "Palestine is not a state," the Filipinos in Gaza "retain their Philippine citizenship...they only have Palestinian identity cards."
"So even the children, because they follow the citizenship of their mother under our Constitution, they're Filipinos even if they have severed all ties with us. As the President said, don't make those fine distinctions at this time. We just have to provide assistance," he said.
ICRC led
About 250 foreigners on Thursday took the risky ride from Gaza City to safety across the border, but hundreds are believed still left inside the war-stricken territory, diplomats said.
Some of those trapped, like Spaniard Maria Velasco, have made three attempts to get to the border but say they have been forced back by the fighting between Israel and Hamas or by bureaucratic obstacles.
The ICRC organized the convoy of six buses that took 48 Canadians along with citizens of Austria, Norway, the Philippines, Romania and Sweden, officials said.
"It was risky," said Palestinian-Canadian Marwan Diad who was on holiday with his family when he became trapped in the war. "Nowhere is safe in Gaza."
At the Erez border crossing with Israel, the foreigners were greeted by diplomats from their countries and most were then escorted away to be taken onwards to Jordan where they were to board flights home.
Nasreen Elmadhoon, another Canadian Palestinian who had returned to Gaza to see her cancer-stricken father, blamed both sides for the conflict. "Everywhere people are being killed, people dying," she said.
"I was supposed to leave on January 1, but I was stuck there, just hearing the bombs, in the house, doing nothing. I am happy because I'm out, but I am worried about my family."
Her seven year-old son, Fawiz, said: "I hate bombs, I was scared. I tried to not hear them. At night, my mum was sleeping. I was the only one awake. There are so many bombs, almost to our house... it didn't come, but it was very close."
Israel allowed a first group of more than 200 foreigners to leave Hamas-controlled Gaza -- where medical workers say more than 760 people have been killed -- on January 2, the day before it sent in thousands of troops to back up a week of air raids.
Several attempts since then to evacuate foreigners have been cancelled because of fighting too close to the route they were meant to take.
Diplomats in Jerusalem estimate there are another 400 foreigners of 22 nationalities left in Gaza. Most are Palestinians with dual nationality or are married to Palestinians.
A Swedish diplomat said the consulate general in Jerusalem had been unable to contact two people on a list of 14 Swedish passport-holders still in Gaza.
"The others we have managed to stay in contact with, though even the mobile phone network is becoming very difficult now."
Maria Velasco, married to a Palestinian doctor, has tried three times to leave Gaza and told AFP by telephone from her home in the besieged southern town of Khan Yunis that she was now desperate.
She had hoped to leave with the others on Thursday but the Spanish consulate had not been able to get authorization.
Spanish diplomatic sources blamed "circumstances beyond our control" and said the consulate general still hoped to get Velasco, her husband and two-year-old son out as soon as possible.
Velasco said she hoped to make a new attempt to leave on Friday, but was worried as "nowhere is safe."
She criticized what she called a "lack of coordination" by the Spanish government, Israel and the United Nations which had prevented them from being evacuated on Thursday.
She said she has been asking the Spanish consulate to get her out for more than a month. With reports from Niña Corpuz, ABS-CBN News, Arnold Eligado, ABS-CBN News correspondent in Israel and Agence France-Presse
