8 of 15 Hungarian citizens leave Gaza

Of the fifteen Hungarian citizens in the Gaza Strip, eight have been able to leave the area, and contacts with the remaining seven persons will be maintained in order to evacuate them as soon as possible, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó said in Astana on Thursday.

According to a statement issued by his ministry, Szijjártó said the armed conflict in Israel had put many Hungarians in danger, more than 550 people managed to escape from the country, but fifteen people with Hungarian citizenship were stranded in Gaza, along with around 7,000 other foreigners.

“We tried to move every stone in order to evacuate them, but as you could see, no one had had the opportunity in recent weeks to leave the Gaza Strip for Egypt at the Rafah border crossing,” he said.

Szijjártó said the fifteen people basically comprised three families and including five Palestinian relatives, there were twenty people who were informed without delay when a possibility opened to leave the area. “Two of the three families accepted the security challenges, which entailed having to travel a relatively long distance within the Gaza Strip in order to reach the border crossing. One family did not accept this,” he said.

“The two families, with a total of eight Hungarian citizens and two Palestinian family members, crossed the border at Rafah a few hours ago so they are all in Egypt now,” he said.

“Once again, I would like to express my gratitude to the Egyptian and Israeli foreign ministers for helping us … bring the Hungarian citizens out of the Gaza Strip,” Szijjártó said.

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