UPDATE 63 Romanians receive permission to leave Gaza until now/ other requests are pending

Israeli authorities did not approve, for now, none of the 64 evacuation requests submitted by Romania’s Embassy in Tel Aviv, on behalf of 64 Romanian citizens. Most of them do not have the necessary documents, which takes up longer, Mediafax informs.

UPDATE: Israeli officials grant permission of 63 Romanian citizens to leave Gaza starting Monday, 6:30 pm through Erez but the lack of cease fire agreements prevents them from leaving. Foreign Affairs officials did whatever they could to facilitate the repatriation of the Romanian citizens living in Gaza.

Thus, on Sunday night, the 63 people interested to leave Gaza were informed by the Romanian Foreign Affairs officials that they received permission from Israeli officials to leave the area starting Monday, 6:30 pm. However, the first bus had to return, as rockets kept falling without rest. Romanian officials in Tel Aviv declared that they will continue to pressure Israeli officials to allow a secure corridor to evacuate citizens.

Romanians are not the only ones pending a decision from the Israeli state: German, Austrian and Hungarian citizens in the area are also waiting for a response. Another factor that lead to the delay is that the requests were formulated as late as December 31 and January 2.

Romanian officials urged their Israeli counterparts to approve the evacuation requests. However, even if requests are approved, for now, there is no clear and safe passing point: the Erez borderline is shut down and the approval of the requests would entail the creation of a secure passing that would allow their evacuation.

Currently, Israeli authorities approved 443 requests made by foreigners but only 200 managed to leave the area.