Ukrainian embassy in Israel struggles to help more than thousand people without budget and resources
More than a thousand people have already contacted the Ukrainian Embassy in Israel for help, and the number is growing, Ukraine’s ambassador to Israel, Yevgen Korniychuk, told Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) on Oct. 11.
"We are paying particular attention to those in greater need, to those who call us from Ukrainian numbers, not from Israeli ones,” Korniychuk said.
“We understand that these people are in Israel temporarily, who came to visit (friends or relatives), came either as tourists or for religious pilgrimages or for some other reason, and are left without the possibility of staying (somewhere)," Korniychuk said, saying that consuls had managed to find hotel rooms for some of them.
"We are doing everything we can."
The situation with the Gaza Strip evacuation, for which 160 Ukrainians have applied for, is even more complicated.
"We are tentatively planning the evacuation for Thursday-Friday (Oct. 12-13), provided that the Rafah crossing from the Gaza Strip to Egypt is open, as it was bombed twice yesterday," Korniychuk said.
He said the Ukrainians will be taken from Gaza to Egypt and then transported to another country within 48 hours. The evacuation will be carried out by the embassy at the expense of sponsors, as there's no money for this in the budget.
Three Ukrainians were killed, nine others were injured and six are missing following the bloody Hamas militant attack on Israel, Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleh Nikolenko said in a post on Facebook on Oct. 11.
Ukrainian diplomats remain in close contact with Israeli law enforcement to determine the location and condition of the injured and to search for the missing.
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