Ambassador of Bosnia and Herzegovina in Egypt Sabit Subašić told Klix.ba that the evacuation of 42 people from Gaza was approved.
“I am heading towards Gaza, we have been approved to evacuate 42 people. We are trying to include two more,” Subasic said.
There are 54 people on the list submitted for evacuation, of which 27 are BiH citizens, while the rest are their close relatives (spouses and children).
After the citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina are picked up in Gaza, they go to Cairo, where they will be housed for three days.
Currently, it is not known whether the evacuation of stranded persons who are on the list for evacuation in BiH will be approved.
Citizens of Croatia and Serbia have mostly been evacuated from Gaza and have arrived in their home countries. Citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) are still waiting to be rescued. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of BiH announced that within the scope of their mandate and competence, they provide active support to the Ministry of Security of BiH responsible for the process of evacuating citizens of BiH from Gaza.
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.
