Russian evacuees from Gaza arrive in Moscow
A Russian emergencies ministry plane landed in Moscow Tuesday with 22 evacuees onboard from the Palestinian Gaza Strip torn by inter-factional violence, a ministry spokesman said.
"The aircraft landed in Moscow`s Domodedovo airport at 17:30 Moscow time [13:30 GMT]. Onboard were 15 Russians, four Belarusians, and three Kazakh nationals," a spokesman said.
Russian diplomats said Monday they did not rule out further evacuation efforts, as at least 124 Russians and post-Soviet CIS nationals remain on a list of applicants for evacuation. They failed to turn up at the Israeli Erez checkpoint at the designated time Monday.
Tel Aviv agreed to open the checkpoint, previously closed to prevent a spillover of violence, to allow civilians to leave the area. The evacuees were transported to Jordan`s capital Amman by bus and then flown home.
The first group of about 80 Russian nationals, mainly Russian women married to Palestinians, was evacuated from the Palestinian enclave June 20.
Gaza is now under the control of the radical Islamist movement Hamas, which ousted the secularist pro-presidential Fatah group, leading to the dismissal of the Palestinian coalition government and the split of territories into Gaza and the West Bank, controlled by Fatah.
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