Filipinos in Gaza given exit clearance — DFA
All Filipinos in war-torn Gaza have been given clearance to leave and cross to Egypt after almost a month of facing uncertainty in the face of Israel's heavy bombardment on the Palestinian territory.
Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) Undersecretary Eduardo Jose de Vega announced the much-anticipated development on Saturday, Nov. 4, a day after President Marcos bared that the Israeli government promised to allow and prioritize the departure of Filipinos trapped in Gaza.
"We received the notice from the Israeli government that all 136 Filipinos have been given approval, have been given the exit clearance to leave," de Vega said in a briefing hosted by Saturday News Forum.
Twenty Filipinos will form the first batch of repatriates that will depart Gaza on Sunday. About 23 more will follow, leading to the number of Filipinos whose repatriation have been assured at 43.
Meanwhile, de Vega said the Palestinian spouses of the Filipinos in Gaza will not be allowed out, "and because of that, now, we're not certain how many of the Filipinos will be wanting to leave."
But the children and the grandchildren of Filipinos with Palestinian spouses who are dual citizens will be able to depart for the Philippines, Gaza clarified.
The upcoming batches of repatriates will cross to Egypt through the Rafah border, where they will be picked up by Philippine embassy officials. They will then stay in the Egyptian capital of Cairo, where they have to board a flight bound for Manila within 72 hours, de Vega said.
"We'll be paying all the expenses, of course, the transportation, the accommodations in Cairo and the flight back to Manila," he added.
De Vega said repatriated Filipinos will be given assistance by the government upon their return. The President already ordered a whole-of-government approach in assisting them, he added.
"So we'll be working with that. And remember they are not coming home for good. They will most likely return to Gaza once the situation has cleared, but we're working on that, it's a different set of packages from what we've seen with the OFWs (overseas Filipino workers)," he said.
So far, two Filipinos were already able to exit Gaza after a short opening of the border with Egypt. They were two doctors who are part of the humanitarian group Doctors Without Borders.
The world had pressed for the opening of the humanitarian corridor in Gaza, which only happened after almost a month since the territory was placed under siege by Israel on Oct. 7.
Opening of the humanitarian corridor had been long pushed amid continued bombardments of Israel which already left at least 8,000 civilians in Gaza dead.