After several weeks of efforts by all actors and institutions involved in the complex evacuation process, today 42 people who have the citizenship of Bosnia and Herzegovina or are related to Bosnia and Herzegovina crossed over to the Egyptian side from Gaza. Due to the impossibility of reaching the border, one part did not manage to evacuate today.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Bosnia and Herzegovina, through the members of the Crisis Staff of the Ministry and our ambassadors, continues to monitor the developments in the process of evacuation from Gaza.
At the same time, BiH Security Minister Nenad Nešić claims that the evacuated persons will be security checked.
Immediately at the beginning of the crisis, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of BiH formed a Crisis Staff that operates daily and will continue to operate until the end of the evacuation process. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of BiH, through its embassies in Cairo (Egypt), Tel Aviv (Israel), Amman (Jordan), and Doha (Qatar) and through intensive cooperation with international partners, humanitarian organizations, and other friendly countries, works together to ease the situation and provide assistance in organizing the evacuation of BiH citizens and their relatives from Gaza. There are a total of 54 people on the list of people to be evacuated from Gaza, of which 19 people have the status of citizens of BiH, and the rest are relatives of BiH citizens. The decision on the schedule and terms of evacuation by country is made by the Office of the Coordinator for Civil Affairs at the Israeli Ministry of Defense,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of BiH stated.
They state that it is expected that after the decision on evacuation, BiH citizens will still be able to use the Rafah border crossing, which was occasionally out of order.
“Accommodation for our citizens is provided in Cairo as well as air transportation to Sarajevo, and everything is ready and we are waiting for the signal to start the evacuation. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of BiH continues with continuous cooperation and communication with representatives of the countries in the region, countries engaged in humanitarian action to save civilians from the fighting in the region, international organizations on the ground, the European Union (EU) Civil Protection Mechanism, as well as through cooperation with the Ministry of Security of BiH and contacts with the United Nations (UN) agency the International the Organization for Migration (IOM ). All efforts are being made for our citizens to come to the territory of BiH as soon as possible and safely,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of BiH stated on Tuesday morning.
