Israel revokes permission to evacuate foreigners from Gaza Strip two hours before start

For unknown reasons, the Israeli Foreign Ministry has revoked permission for the planned evacuation of Ukrainians and other foreigners from the Gaza Strip on Saturday, two hours before the start.

Source: Dmytro Lubinets, Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights on the air of joint 24/7 newscast

Quote: "Yesterday, the permit for the evacuation of Ukrainian citizens, as well as other citizens of foreign countries who were supposed to cross the Rafah Crossing Point, was officially documented. This is actually the only crossing point that can be used to evacuate the civilian population, and citizens of foreign countries could enter the territory of Egypt.

Today, two hours before this evacuation, for unknown reasons, the Israeli Foreign Ministry announced that they do not guarantee security and withdrew this permit.

There is already an official statement from our Foreign Ministry, and our ambassador has officially sent a note of protest. According to our information, a number of other countries either have done or are planning to do the same. We do not understand why citizens of Ukraine, as well as other citizens of foreign countries, are not allowed to evacuate. Moreover, everyone insists that foremost, women and children requested the evacuation."

Details: The Ombudsman added that the Rafal Crossing Point itself is open from Egypt, according to the Egyptian authorities.

"In fact, we ask Israel that this crossing point be safe and simply not bombed. We ask the Palestinians and the Palestinian authorities to simply allow our citizens to leave, and the Egyptian authorities to simply let them pass, and accept them," he said.

According to Lubinets, the situation in the Gaza Strip "should be called a humanitarian catastrophe."

"According to our information, there is not just a power outage, problems with water, food, medicines, the problem is that there is no longer a mobile connection. And our connection with our citizens is also being lost," he said.

Lubinets noted that today it is known about 243 Ukrainians who need evacuation from the Gaza Strip, but this figure will grow.

"The general image is [that these are] our Ukrainian citizens who married Palestinians and lived in the Gaza Strip. There were children in the families. Some of the children have Ukrainian documents, some do not, and some have their Ukrainian passports expired. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in my opinion, works as efficiently as possible. It doesn't matter to us whether the documents are overdue or not. These are citizens of Ukraine, we will do everything to evacuate them," Lubinets said.

Background: 

• Earlier, the media reported that the United States, Israel and Egypt had agreed to allow foreign nationals in the Gaza Strip to leave the region. The agreement stipulated that foreign nationals caught up in the escalation in the Gaza Strip would be able to leave for Egypt through the Rafah Crossing Point on Saturday afternoon. 
• On 12 October, the IDF told the residents of the northern part of the Gaza Strip they had 24 hours to evacuate further south for their safety and said it would continue striking Hamas militants’ targets in Gaza.
• On 14 October, the Israel Defence Forces said that they were conducting numerous airstrikes on Hamas facilities in the Gaza Strip and were wrapping up preparations for a "significant ground operation".
• The Israeli Defence Forces claim that the Hamas terrorist group is preventing the evacuation of Palestinians from the northern Gaza Strip.
• Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets arrived in Cairo to help set up a mechanism for the evacuation of Ukrainian citizens from the Gaza Strip. He said that 243 Ukrainians need urgent evacuation from the Gaza Strip.

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