The Philippine government has raised the crisis alert level in Gaza to Alert Level 3 due to the escalating tensions between Israel and militant group Hamas.
This means, repatriation of Filipinos will now be voluntary.
There will be no deployment of workers to the area as hostilities continue.
“There’s a serious concern over the safety of our kababayans there so we are calling for voluntary repatriation, we’re not gonna drag them out,” DFA Undersecretary Ed De Vega said in an interview.
The DFA said that they have received some 70 requests for repatriation.
Most of the Filipinos there are married to Palestinian nationals.
“We are using diplomatic connections it’s not just the Philippines having problems repatriaating their nationals we are working together,” De Vega added.
The DFA official said that while our kababayans are waiting for the go signal on the repatriation, Filipinos are urged to stay at home.
“We urge our kababayans there to stay home lalo na dont join Hamas rallies dont expose yourselves because Israelis are saying they will hit Hamas targets,” De Vega said.
