DAMASCUS/EREZ CHECKPOINT (Israel), June 20 (RIA Novosti) - Sixty-nine Russians, seven Belarusians, and 91 Ukrainians were evacuated from the Gaza Strip via Israel Wednesday.
A total of 141 Russians and 147 Ukrainians were on the evacuee list but some of them later refused to be evacuated or, in the case of Ukrainians, moved to other planes. Tel Aviv agreed to open the Erez checkpoint, the main crossing point into Israel, closed last week to prevent a spillover of violence, to let civilians leave the area. The evacuees will be transported to Jordan's capital Amman by bus and then flown home.
The first group of Russians passed the checkpoint at 9:10 a.m. GMT. Their plane is due to take off from Amman at 11 a.m. local time (8 a.m. GMT) Thursday.
Gaza has been under the full control of radical Islamic movement Hamas since last week's fighting with the pro-presidential Fatah movement, which left at least 100 people dead.
