The Spanish Foreign Minister announces that six Hispanic Palestinians and six of their relatives have left Gaza
Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares announced that 12 Palestinians (six Spanish-Palestinian citizens and six family members) were able to leave Gaza through the Rafah border crossing, which connects the enclave with Egypt. They join more than a hundred Hispanic-Palestinians who have already left the enclave.
“Today I have good news for Spain: 12 Palestinians, six Spanish-Palestinian citizens and six of their relatives, were able to leave Gaza via Rafah and are currently on their way to Cairo,” Albares announced at a press conference after attending the Council the EU, where the conflict between Israel and Hamas has taken up a large part of the talks.
Diplomatic sources say very few Spanish-Palestinian citizens remain there, with “a few dozen” of them refusing to leave the area.
More than a month of war had already passed when the first Spaniards managed to leave the Gaza Strip in mid-November. Within three days, 143 citizens (including people with Spanish passports and family members) arrived in Egypt. Then Foreign Affairs reported that this phase of the evacuation operation had been completed. While the ministry acknowledged that there may be other citizens with Spanish nationality who did not want to leave or were unable to do so, it assured that it would not ignore them and would facilitate their exit, which would be carried out on an individual basis or in small groups. Just a week later, a group of 31 other people, made up of Hispanic Palestinians and their families, also managed to leave Gaza.