People sit inside a car as Palestinians, including foreign passport holders, wait at Rafah border crossing after evacuations were suspended following an Israeli strike on an ambulance, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, November 5, 2023. — REUTERS

By John Victor D. Ordoñez, Reporter

THIRTY-FIVE Filipinos and one Palestinian spouse who crossed to Egypt from Gaza on Wednesday are expected to arrive in the Philippines on Friday, according to the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA).

Three of the 40 Filipinos who entered Egypt through the Rafah Border Crossing decided to stay in Egypt with their spouses, while one Filipina who is 38 weeks pregnant and a relative also stayed behind, Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Jose Eduardo A. de Vega said in a WhatsApp message on Thursday.

DFA on Tuesday said the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs had agreed to let Filipinos cross with their Palestinian spouses. Mr. De Vega earlier said some Filipinos were hesitant to leave their Palestinian spouses.

Attacks had delayed the evacuation of Filipinos to Egypt via the Rafah Border Crossing, which opened for the first time last week since Israel’s war with the Islamist Hamas group, DFA said on Sunday.

The Philippines earlier placed Gaza under Alert Level 4, forcing Filipinos to return to the country. Israel is under Alert Level 2.

In a Facebook post late Wednesday, the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) said 19 overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) have returned to the Philippines from Lebanon amid the hostilities between Israel forces and Iran-backed Islamist group Hezbollah. Nine OFWs from Lebanon arrived on Wednesday evening, it added.

A total of 184 OFWs based in Israel have returned to the Philippines, the agency said on Tuesday.

President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. earlier said Israel Foreign Minister Eli Cohen had committed to ensure the immediate evacuation of Filipinos trapped in the conflict.

Israel launched a barrage of airstrikes in Gaza after Hamas militants backed by waves of rockets stormed from the blockaded Gaza Strip into nearby Israeli towns on Oct. 7, killing about 1,400 Israelis.

Israel has deployed tens of thousands of its troops for a ground assault on the Palestinian enclave and has enforced a blockade.

More than 10,000 Palestinians have died since the war started last month, according to Gaza health authorities. At least four Filipinos have died in the war.

The Israel Defense Forces said they have destroyed 130 tunnel shafts belonging to Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

“Combat engineers fighting in Gaza are destroying the enemy’s weapons and are locating, exposing and detonating tunnel shafts,” it said in a statement.

Israel has said Hamas has a vast network of underground tunnels in Gaza.

Meanwhile, four Filipino seamen were injured after a Russian missile hit a civilian vessel entering a Black Sea port in the Odesa region in Ukraine on Wednesday, DMW said in a statement.

A Filipino captain, an able seaman, deck cadet and an electrician on board suffered minor injuries. The electrician fractured his left hand and had been treated at a hospital in Odesa.

The ship’s harbor pilot died after the Liberian-flagged vessel docked at the port of Pivdennyi near Odesa, DMW said.

“As soon as we received the report of the incident, we instructed their manning agency and ship owner to provide all the necessary assistance to the injured crew,” DMW officer-in-charge Hans Leo J. Cacdac said.

“Thankfully, they were far enough from the point of impact and suffered nonfatal injuries.”

Russia has been attacking Ukrainian ports after the former pulled out of a United Nations deal that guaranteed safe shipments of Ukrainian grain through the Black Sea, Reuters reported on Wednesday.

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