Two planes fly from Jordan to Moscow with Gaza Strip evacuees

MOSCOW. January 3. KAZINFORM Two planes of the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry flew from Jordan to Moscow. They are bringing citizens of the Russian Federation and former Soviet republics, evacuated from the Gaza Strip, to the Russian capital.

"Today, at 02:40, Moscow time and 03:00, Moscow time, passenger planes Yak-42 and Il-62 flew from Amman to Moscow," a representative of the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry told Itar-Tass. "The planes are bringing 178 people to Moscow, including 102 Russian citizens. The others are citizens of Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Belarus and Moldova," the Emergency Situations Ministry said. The planes are to land at the Domodedovo airport. On Friday, Russian diplomats told Tass ?According to the Russian president?s decision, in connection with the sharp deterioration of the situation in the Gaza Strip, the evacuation of the permanently residing there Russian and some CIS countries? citizens that expressed the desire to leave the conflict zone, was carried out on January 2, 2009.? The operation to evacuate Russians was conducted amidst the unceasing rocket firing from the Gaza Strip and response strikes by the Israeli Air Force and artillery. Itar-Tass learnt that an agreement had been reached with the Hamas militants through various channels for the evacuation period on the creation of the ?green corridor? for two hours, needed for the refugees to get to the checkpoint Eretz on the border of Israel and the Gaza Strip. The International Committee of the Red Cross provided buses for this in the Gaza territory. Planes sent by the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry brought 30 tonnes of relief supplies each for the Palestinian population. These supplies included tenets, blankets, foodstuffs and medicines, Kazinform cites ITAR-TASS.