Ready for repatriation

The situation in the Gaza Strip, where Filipinos are waiting to dash to the Rafah Crossing on the first leg of their repatriation, is nail-biting.

But it is heartening to note the Armed Forces of the Philippines has prepared military aircraft for the repatriation of Filipinos caught in the conflict after the the Philippine government raised Alert Level 4 over the strife-torn country.

“If the (Department of Foreign Affairs) will recommend, and the President will direct us to fly our assets to where they should be, the airport of embarkation, then we will do it for the sake of our nation,” AFP spokesman Col. Medel Aguilar said.

Many are waiting for the lift off, and as many are keenly watching when the Rafah Crossing will be open to foreigners wanting to get out of the Gaza Strip, where many desperately awaited a first delivery of international emergency aid Friday, with Israeli forces pounding the enclave from the air and warning a ground invasion was “soon.”

The aid – food, medicines, water purifiers, hygiene products and blankets – has been piling in Egypt’s Sinai region at El Arish airport, which even opened an extra landing strip to cope with deliveries.

Rafah, the border crossing into Gaza that Egypt had promised to open on Friday, is the only crossing into the blockaded Palestinian territory that is not controlled by Israel.

Located in Egypt’s north Sinai, the Rafah Crossing is the sole border crossing between Gaza and Egypt and falls along a 12.8-kilometer fence that separates Gaza from the Sinai desert.

Of 30,000 Filipinos in Israel, some 131 are in Gaza, according to the Department of Foreign Affairs.

For 13 days Israel has launched relentless air strikes on the Palestinian territory in retaliation for cross-border Hamas raids that killed 1,400 people, mostly civilians who were shot, mutilated or burnt to death.

To date, 28 overseas Filipino workers, mostly caregivers, and an infant have arrived in the country from war-torn Israel, although officials stressed most of the Filipinos who returned were actually scheduled to come home and not because of the conflict.

Many of the returnees, particularly those who heard the explosions following the Hamas attack