Russia evacuates 21 citizens from Gaza

TEL AVIV January 9. KAZINFORM Russian diplomats evacuated on Thursday a second group of Russian nationals, totaling 21 people, from the Gaza Strip, a spokeswoman for the Russian embassy in Israel said.

"The evacuation is over," Anastasia Fyodorova said, adding that 47 Ukrainians were also evacuated. Russian nationals were part of a group of at least 250 foreigners who arrived at the border with Israel after a trip by busses through the violence-torn Palestinian enclave. The Russian and Ukrainian evacuees will be later transported to the Jordanian capital, Amman, and will be flown by a Russian emergencies ministry's plane to Moscow. About 200 nationals from about 20 countries also left the enclave. The evacuation was organized by embassies jointly with Israeli military and the International Committee of the Red Cross, Kazinform cites RIA Novosti. Moscow evacuated the first group of 101 Russian citizens from Gaza on January 2, a day before the start of a major Israeli ground offensive against Hamas militants in response to frequent rocket attacks on Israeli territory. At least 250 Russian citizens resided in the Gaza Strip prior to the evacuation, most of them wives and children of Palestinians who studied at Russian universities. Some Russians decided not to leave their homes in Gaza due to trip safety concerns. According to latest reports, at least 700 Palestinians have been killed, including 215 children and 89 women, and more than 3,000 injured as a result of Israeli airstrikes and ground operations since the beginning of "an all-out war" against Hamas in late December. Russia said on Wednesday it would continue its efforts in the UN Security Council and across the Middle East to bring about a settlement to the conflict in the Gaza Strip.