Russia says it evacuated over 1,100 people, including foreigners, from Gaza

By Elena Teslova

MOSCOW (AA) - Russia has evacuated more than 1,100 people from the Gaza Strip, a senior diplomat said on Thursday.

More than half of them are Russian citizens, while the rest are foreign nationals, Yury Gorlach, director of the Situational Crisis Center, an emergency task force at the Russian Foreign Ministry, said at a news conference in Moscow.

"Our foreign institutions received permission for about 1,300 people to pass through the Rafah checkpoint," he said.

Gorlach specified that 1,125 people left Gaza via the Rafah border crossing and were then transported to Russia by special planes of the country's Emergency Ministry.

Of them, 644 are Russian citizens, while 473 are Palestinians, who are family members of Russian citizens. “We also managed to evacuate citizens of Kyrgyzstan, Ukraine, Sweden, and Morocco," he said.

Currently, a small number of Russian citizens remain in the Palestinian enclave, the Russian foreign missions closely follow the situation and try to help them, Gorlach said.

Some 600 of the evacuated people, half of them children, have been sent to 10 temporary accommodation facilities, he said.

The diplomat went on to say that most of the Russian hostages have been set free and that efforts are underway for the release of the remaining hostages.

"As you understand, the situation in the region is tense. ... The safe withdrawal of our hostages is also a task that must be achieved very carefully ... We are working closely on this issue with the authorities of both Israel and Qatar, which is also providing assistance," he said.

Israel has pounded the Gaza Strip since a cross-border attack by Palestinian group, Hamas, on Oct. 7, killing at least 21,110 Palestinians and injuring 55,243 others, mostly women and children, according to local health authorities.

Around 1,200 Israelis are believed to have been killed in the Hamas attack.