The first group of Russian citizens leaving Gaza for Egypt

According to a list of the Gaza border crossing authority published by the agency, 84 of the 85 Russian citizens whose passage was approved through the Rafah checkpoint as of November 10 were listed as having dual citizenship. Holders of Russian passports are the second largest group of foreigners approved for passage from the Palestinian enclave to Egypt.

Earlier on November 10, the Gaza border crossing department announced that the first 85 Russian citizens living in the enclave, along with another five hundred foreigners, would be able to leave it. Those wishing to cross to the Egyptian side were instructed to arrive at the Rafah checkpoint by 7:00 local time (8:00 Moscow time) with the relevant documents, including international passports and certificates permitting the transportation of children.

At least 36 names of Russian passport holders from the list are female. There are 22 European, including Slavic, female names on the list. For the most part, these are families of two or three or more children with one parent. In total there are 32 children on the list, the two oldest of them are 17 years old. Thus, 68 people out of 85 evacuees are women and children. The year of birth of the oldest on the list is 1966, the youngest is born in 2022.

A total of 594 foreigners were approved to pass through the Rafah checkpoint. In addition to the Russians, these are 266 Canadians, 107 Romanians, 33 Brazilians, 26 Poles. There are also American (14), Albanian (14), New Zealand (12), Chinese (10), Indian (7), Indonesian (6), German (6), Danish (4), Dutch (2) and Malaysian (2) ) citizens.

On the afternoon of November 10, a RIA Novosti correspondent reported that Russians “began to arrive” at the Rafah checkpoint, the only relatively functioning crossing from the Gaza Strip towards Egypt. At the time of submission of the note, there was no information that Russians had crossed the border. After crossing the checkpoint, Russians should be met by representatives of the Russian Embassy in Cairo and the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations.

Now at Cairo airport, according to the Ministry of Emergency Situations, there are two departmental special aircraft Il-76, which on November 3 transported 28 tons of humanitarian aid for delivery to the Gaza Strip. Vedomosti sent a request to the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations about the timing and other parameters for the removal of Russian citizens living in the Gaza Strip from Egypt.

Vedomosti also asked the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova, the Russian Embassy in Israel, the Russian mission to the Palestinian National Authority (PNA, based in Ramallah, in the West Bank) about the selection criteria for evacuation lists and its approval by the Israeli side, and also the approximate timing of the removal of everyone. Vedomosti also asked the Egyptian Foreign Ministry about the parameters for receiving Russian citizens and other technical details of the evacuation.

As Aliya Zaripova, press secretary of the Russian mission to the PNA, explained to Vedomosti on November 10, the list of those who asked for help in evacuating Gaza has not increased over the past week and a half and includes about 600 Russians, as well as about 300 citizens of other states, mainly CIS countries. As the diplomatic institution previously reported to Vedomosti, in total, according to rough estimates, approximately 1,200 Russians permanently reside in the Gaza Strip.

“The presence of predominantly women and children on the list of evacuees may be due to the fact that they are relatively easier to verify from the point of view of a security threat, as well as general humanitarian considerations,” believes Lyudmila Samarskaya, a researcher at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at IMEMO RAS.

On November 8, Israeli Ambassador to Moscow Alexander Ben Zvi said that approval of the evacuation of all Russian citizens from the Gaza Strip could take up to two weeks. On November 9, Zakharova responded by saying that Moscow was “shocked” by the Israeli ambassador’s statement about the timing of the approval of the departure.

The coordinated removal of foreigners from Gaza through the Rafah checkpoint to Egypt that has begun is not associated with any change in the nature of the conflict; countries whose citizens want to leave the enclave simply want to ensure the safety of their citizens, Samarskaya believes. The expert explained that the evacuation of foreign citizens from the Gaza Strip should be considered separately from the development of hostilities. According to Samarskaya, the Israeli government is not yet going to abandon the previously set tasks of completely destroying the radical Islamist Hamas, which started the conflict with an attack on Israeli citizens on October 7.

According to the Israeli Ministry of Health, about 1,400 Israeli civilians have been killed since October 7: most in the first days of the Hamas attack. According to the PNA Ministry of Health, on November 10, the death toll of residents of the Gaza Strip since the start of the IDF military operation exceeded 11,000 – 11,078 people became victims of ongoing retaliatory Israeli artillery and air strikes, of which 4,506 were children.