One hundred and twenty Ukrainians based in the Gaza Strip, a self-governing Palestinian territory bordering with Israel, seek to be evacuated to Ukraine as the Israel-Palestinian conflict intensified, according to Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry.
“The Foreign Ministry is in touch with the Ukrainians who expressed the desire to leave the Gaza Strip. Currently, it is 120 people,” Oleh Nikolenko, a spokesperson for the Ministry told Hromadske news outlet on May 15. “The embassies in Israel and Egypt, as well as the representative office with the Palestinian national administration, are working on possible routes for repatriation.”
The current unrest is the most violent development in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in years. Since May 10, the two sides exchanged hundreds of missiles. For the past week, the reported death toll in Gaza reached 174 people, including 47 children. Israel has reported 10 dead, including two children, Reuters reported.
The crisis sparked after several incidents raised tensions between Jews and Palestinians in Israel.
First, the local court in Jerusalem ordered to evict several Muslim families from the eastern part of the city, which Palestine lays claims to as the capital of its partially recognized state. Later, Palestinians clashed with Israeli police near the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem’s Old City, a holy site in both Islam and Judaism and a frequent flashpoint for violence.
