THE Philippine Embassy in Jordan yesterday said it was able to reach out to 87 Filipinos out of the 136 in the Gaza Strip following Internet and communications blackout that started last Friday as Israeli bombardment further intensified.
“We lost contact with them last Friday due to the telecommunications blackout but starting at 4 a.m. Sunday, our Embassy in Amman MalayaNEWS was able to reach out to them,” Ambassador Wilfredo Santos Jr. said in a report to the main office of the Department of Foreign Affairs in Manila.
“We were able to contact 87 Filipinos, including 57 in Rafah. Forty-nine Filipinos remain unreachable for now but we continue to get in touch with them,” he added.
Santos said while the food supply of the 49 Filipinos is sufficient for now, access to water is becoming increasingly difficult in the besieged enclave that is home to more than two million Palestinians.
But he said most of the 49 are not in Gaza City but in other areas of Gaza.
“There are only nine Filipino nationals now in Gaza City. Three, including a nun, who decided to stay and an additional six who returned from the south a few days ago due to lack of space in their quarters,” Santos said.
The Filipino nun is among those caring for 800 Palestinians who have taken shelter in a church amid the Israeli-Hamas war.
Santos last week said the 136 Filipinos in Gaza were accounted for and waiting to be repatriated.
Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Eduardo Jose de Vega said the embassy is prepared to bring Filipinos out of Gaza, including those waiting at the Rafah border crossing. De Vega said they are just waiting for Egyptian authorities to open the border crossing.
The crossing was opened last Friday, but only to trucks bringing aid into Gaza. Yesterday, 10 more trucks carrying food and medical supplies were allowed into Gaza.
Earlier, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the new phase of Israel’s response to Hamas’ October 7 attack, which has left over 1,400 Israelis dead, include ground, naval, and air attacks.
Netanyahu said the operations will further intensify, with the Jewish state vowing to eliminate Hamas.
The DFA has placed Gaza under Alert Level 4, which means mandatory evacuation of Filipinos there.
None of the Filipinos in Gaza were hurt amid the war but four have been killed in Israel since Hamas’ attack while two others remained missing.
There are more than 30,000 Filipinos in Israel, mostly in Tel Aviv and Haifa, working as household service workers, caregivers and in the hotel and service industries.
Foreign Affairs Secretary Enrique Manalo, on the two missing Filipinos, yesterday said the department “assumes” they were among over 200 hostages taken by Hamas after the attack, because “they are not fully accounted for.”
Manalo said the DFA through its embassies in the region, particularly the embassy in Tel Aviv, is exerting all efforts to locate them.
De Vega said the DFA is also working with various countries to seek assistance in locating the unaccounted Filipinos.
The Department of Social Welfare and Department (DSWD) provided P20,000 worth of cash and food aid to 64 Filipinos who arrived from Israel yesterday.
The 64 Filipinos, including two infants, are part of the fourth batch of Filipinos from Israel, who worked either as hotel workers and caregivers in Israel. At least 120 Filipinos from Israel have returned to the country since the attack.
The new arrivals each received P10,000 cash and P10,000 worth of food assistance.
“We will continue to monitor our fellow Filipinos who arrived from Israel. We, together with other concerned agencies, will also continue to assist them, because they lost their jobs,” DSWD Assistant Secretary and spokesman Romel Lopez said in Filipino.
The 64 were welcomed at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport by De Vega, Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) Administrator Arnaldo Ignacio, Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) officer-in-charge Undersecretary Hans Leo Cacdac, DSWD Program Management Bureau (PMB) Director Miramel Garcia-Laxa, and representatives from the Department of Health and the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority. — With Jocelyn Montemayor