Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Eduardo de Vega on Tuesday, Oct. 10, reported that some 38 Filipinos living in Gaza have requested to be repatriated, while none of the estimated 30,500 Filipinos in Israel made the same request.

(Screenshot from Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs/Facebook)

In a Palace media briefing, the official shared that the Philippine Embassy in Amman, Jordan, which has jurisdiction over Philippine affairs in the Palestinian state has already received requests from Filipinos there.

“Sa Gaza, mayroong nagpapa-repatriate. Sa Israel, wala po (In Gaza, there are those who want to be repatriated. In Israel, there’s none),” he said.

The Gaza Strip, from where the barrage of air and ground strikes on Israel emanated last week, has been de facto under the control of militant group Hamas since 2006.

“Right now, according to the embassy in Amman, there are about 38 who’ve asked to be repatriated. And we are in the process, we are working on it,” De Vega stated, adding that more and more Filipinos are reaching out to the embassy.

The official explained that the 137 Filipinos in Gaza are not overseas Filipino workers (OFWs). Rather, they are “Filipino family members" and "Filipinas married to Palestinians”, while some of them are “minor children.”

The DFA official said they are working on the repatriation issue “diplomatically” because the Philippine government cannot simply hire or charter an airplane since there are no flights to and from Gaza.

“The normal way to get out of Gaza is through border of Israel, but which is obviously closed. So, let us work by a principle, by assumption they are on Alert Level 3,” he added.

Meanwhile, the 30,500 Filipinos in Israel have not reached out to the embassy there for possible repatriation since 95 percent of them are not living near the conflict-torn areas of southern Israel.

“They are very resilient just like the people they are living with in Israel and they do not ask for repatriation whenever there is a conflict. Because by past experience, what happened is that after a few days there is a cessation of hostilities,” De Vega explained.

The same can also be said of Filipinos in Palestine as they have been used to the conflict between the two neighbors.

“Because this a situation sadly is kind of a regular thing which Filipinas in Palestine already know about. Pero (But) it could go up, without saying it will. Let’s see how the next few days go,” he said.

The surprise rocket barrage and ground, air and sea offensive was initiated by militant group Hamas from the Gaza Strip over the weekend.

Locals and foreign nationals have been taken hostage as the group ambushed even residential areas.

Israel announced it is at war against the Hamas group, and countries have started evacuating their nationals from the country.