Portugal is preparing the withdrawal, from the Gaza Strip, of 16 Portuguese and “a broader group” of Palestinians linked to the country, through Egypt, the Minister of Foreign Affairs announced this Monday.
“From the beginning we have been in permanent contact with the Israeli and Egyptian authorities and what we have is the possibility of temporarily hosting them, for two or three days, in Egypt and bringing them to Portugal. I would not want to dramatize “With this guy, in terminological terms “A rescue operation is simply the withdrawal of the Portuguese from Egypt, from the moment they can leave Gaza,” the Foreign Minister said this Monday.
Speaking to Portuguese journalists in Brussels at the end of a meeting of the heads of diplomacy of the European Union, João Gomes Cravinho noted that “the Portuguese and their families currently in Gaza will leave in the same way as others.” “foreigners left these last two weeks.”
“Right now we are working with 16. There are six Portuguese and 10 close relatives. And then there is a larger group of Palestinians who have family ties to Portugal,” he explained. In previous statements in the Portuguese parliament, the government official had indicated that there are six citizens with Portuguese passports and, of them, five are minors.
Asked about the withdrawal process, João Gomes Cravinho explained: “Our embassy already studied and planned it from the moment they entered Egypt. Our embassy […] “We will assume this responsibility and try to bring them to Portugal, in principle by commercial means, because it is a relatively small number.”
According to the government official, these citizens “are not abandoned.”
“We are constantly, every day and several times a day, in contact with the Israeli and Egyptian authorities to find the best way to guarantee his departure,” he said.
On Sunday, in a statement on behalf of the Union’s 27 heads of diplomacy, Josep Borrell noted that the EU “is seriously concerned about the worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza.”
“The EU joins calls for an immediate pause in hostilities and the creation of humanitarian corridors, in particular through increased capacity at border posts and a dedicated sea route, so that humanitarian aid can safely reach the population of Gaza,” urged the high representative of the Union.
Speaking this Monday about taking this position, João Gomes Cravinho admitted that “it has taken the whole weekend” to get to this position.
Recalling that Portugal preferred to ask for “a humanitarian ceasefire”, although the position in the EU was to ask for “humanitarian pauses”, the minister stressed that the 27 are “agree […] so that there are no longer civilian victims as has been happening until now.”
This Monday it was also announced that Josep Borrell will travel this week to Israel and Palestine, and other Middle Eastern countries (Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Jordan), to discuss access to humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip and the two State. solution.
“Go talk, go collect information and convey our perspectives from our debates,” said João Gomes Cravinho.
The war between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas – classified as a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union and Israel -, which is now in its 38th day and continues to threaten to spread throughout the Middle East region, has continued until now. . In the Gaza Strip, more than 11,000 people were killed, some 28,000 were injured, some 2,500 were missing, most of them civilians, and around 1.5 million were displaced, according to local authorities.
Source: TSF
