16 Filipino refugees from Gaza leave Bangkok

(Updated 5:28 p.m.) MANILA, Philippines — Sixteen of the 17 Filipinos who were evacuated from troubled Gaza Strip are now on their way to Manila from Bangkok, Thailand, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said Friday. DFA spokesman Claro Cristobal said the Filipino refugees arrived in Bangkok at 1:05 p.m. (2:05 p.m. in Manila) aboard Royal Jordanian Flight 180 from Amman, Jordan. They later boarded Thai Airways Flight TG624 and were expected to arrive at Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Manila at 7:05 p.m. The 17th Filipino refugee to make it out of Gaza Strip was a nun. She was placed by Filipino diplomats in Israel under the care of a Latin patriarch in Jerusalem. Vice President Noli de Castro said the 16 Filipino evacuees, who belong to three families, were accompanied by special envoy to the Middle East Roy Cimatu. On Thursday night, the Philippine ambassador to Israel, Petronila Garcia, said 91 Filipinos were still in Gaza, which continues to be rocked by fighting between Israeli and Hamas ground troops. She said the 91 opted to stay either because they did not want to leave their Palestinian families or they were afraid to get caught in the crossfire. The 17 Filipinos who opted to leave were among 250 foreign nationals who were evacuated by the Red Cross. Their evacuation, first scheduled last Monday, was twice called off because of heavy shelling, explosions, and gunfire. After getting approval of the Israeli government, Philippine Embassy officials plucked the 17 Filipinos out of their homes in central Gaza during lulls in heavy fighting, bringing them by bus to the Erez border crossing – the only exit where frantic foreigners were allowed to leave en masse. They traveled to the Allenby Crossing in the Jordan-Israel border en route to Amman, Jordan. In Geneva, the International Committee of the Red Cross said one of its convoys came under Israeli fire at the Netzarim crossing during the three-hour lull in fighting Thursday. One driver was lightly injured. Israel's ambassador to Manila, Zvi Vapni, said his country's air and ground strikes were being done in self-defense. It was not clear when the hostilities, which has killed more than 700 people, will end. "The Hamas organization backed by Iran and Syria has been attacking Israel in the last three years by daily launching of rockets from within the Gaza strip. All our attempts to stop this war crime, this act of sheer terror, did not succeed," Vapni said in a statement. - GMANews.TV