One Filipino might have been taken hostage by Hamas militants — DFA
By Kyle Aristophere T. Atienza, Reporter
ONE of six missing Filipinos in Israel might have been taken hostage by Hamas militants at the weekend, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said on Monday.
Twenty Filipinos were rescued and transferred to safer houses or hotels there, it said in a statement
Two of the rescued Filipinos were injured, with one being treated in a hospital. The other one was recovering after inhaling smoke.
Hamas militants backed by a barrage of rockets stormed from the blockaded Gaza Strip into nearby Israeli towns, killing dozens and kidnapping others in an unprecedented surprise attack at the weekend.
A stunned Israel launched airstrikes in Gaza, with its prime minister saying the country is now at war with Hamas and vowing to inflict an “unprecedented price.”
DFA said a Filipina had sought the help of the Philippine Embassy in Tel Aviv after her Filipino husband was seen in one of the videos on social media of captives being rounded up by the militant Palestinian group.
The embassy had relayed the information to Israeli authorities, the DFA said, adding that it “cannot independently verify his identity based on the video alone but considers the report of the wife as important.”
“We are also working with community contacts on his case.”
DFA said 25 of 137 Filipinos living in Gaza have sought repatriation after Israel’s retaliatory strikes.
Five or six Filipinos remained missing in the southern part of Israel, Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Eduardo de Vega told ABS-CBN Teleradyo.
He said Israel’s military had rescued eight Filipino caregivers with some Israelis who were about to be taken by Hamas amid the war, which has killed more than a thousand Israelis and Palestinians.
About 30,000 Filipinos live in Israel and most of them live outside the country’s southern region which is near Hamas-controlled Gaza, a narrow strip of land that is home to 2.3 million Palestinians.
Mr. De Vega separately told the ABS-CBN News Channel the militant group was “not targeting Filipinos, as far as I know.” “They are specifically targeting people who are related to Israeli soldiers.”
Migrant Workers officer-in-charge Hans Leo Cacdac said at least one Filipino was grazed by a bullet during a rescue mission. “But he is not in a life-threatening situation, he is in a hospital.”
The death toll from the war that began on Saturday has risen to more than 1,000 people — 700 Israelis and 400 Palestinians.
‘SELF-DETERMINATION’
Tens of thousands of Israeli forces have been deployed to neutralize Hamas forces, with the Israeli government preparing for a possible offensive on Gaza.
On Sunday, Israel Ambassador to the Philippines Ilan Fluss urged Manila to stand with them amid the war.
The office of President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. has condemned the attacks, saying the Philippines “understands the right of states to self-defense in the light of external aggression as recognized in the United Nations Charter.”
The war has drawn mixed reactions from Filipinos, with some expressing solidarity with Palestinians and human rights groups calling for respect for international law.
The attack was a response to “75 years of relentless human rights violations that come with genocidal war and occupation,” Bagong Alyansang Makabayan said in a statement.
Palestinians, whom Israel “pushed out of their homeland” in 1948 were exercising their “right to self-determination,” it said.
The Gaza Strip is one of the two territories occupied by Palestinians — the other being the West Bank, which the Israeli government had tried to invade in recent years.
The two areas, along with East Jerusalem, came under Israeli occupation after the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. Since the war, Israel has responded to Palestinians’ demand for a homeland through military force.
“For Filipinos who take pride in their own history, particularly the 1986 Katipunan Revolution, which marked the first successful Asian liberation from European colonialism, it is clear that ending foreign occupation, by whatever means necessary, is a crucial initial step towards achieving independence and establishing a just and enduring peace,” Jose Monfred Sy, a professor at the University of the Philippines College of Arts and Letters, said in a Facebook Messenger chat.
He said the Palestinian struggle has “multiple dimensions,” including their push for land and food sovereignty, quest for dignity amid Israeli forces’ desecration of their worship sites and fight for basic human rights.
The Philippines’ main defense ally, the United States, has called on the United Nations Security Council to condemn Hamas.
The 15-member UN body met on Monday in an emergency session after the attacks but failed to come up with a joint statement, which needs to be agreed upon by consensus.
