The departure of foreigners and Palestinians with dual citizenship from the Gaza Strip continues. Hundreds of people were expected to leave the isolated coastal strip towards Egypt today, according to a list from the Palestinian border authority at the Rafah border crossing.
According to the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in November, around 7,000 people from 60 countries were temporarily in the Gaza Strip and wanted to leave. It is unclear how many foreigners and Palestinians with second passports are currently still in Gaza.
Efforts for the Austrians
Tal Shoham, a dual Austrian-Israeli citizen, is still in the Gaza Strip. However, he is likely being held hostage by Hamas. Shoham's wife and children were released under an agreement between Israel and Hamas on the release of hostages in exchange for a ceasefire and the release of Palestinian prisoners.
As “Kleine Zeitung” and “Österreich” reported, Chancellor Karl Nehammer's (ÖVP) special foreign policy advisor Peter Launsky-Tieffenthal is trying to free 38-year-old Shoham. Diplomat Launsky-Tieffenthal, former UN Under-Secretary-General and later spokesman for Chancellor Sebastian Kurz's turquoise federal government (ÖVP) and Secretary-General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, retired this autumn, but soon became special advisor to Nehammer and now has an office in the Federal Chancellery again, wrote the “Kleine Zeitung”. Last week, Launsky-Tieffenthal held talks in Israel, Egypt and Qatar about Shoham. This turned out to be difficult.