Foreigners and Palestinians Leaving Gaza: Efforts for Austrians and Dual Citizens

2023-12-28 11:50:04

The departure of foreigners and Palestinians with dual citizenship from the Gaza Strip continues. Hundreds were due to leave the sealed-off coastal strip for Egypt today, according to a list from the Palestinian border authority at the Rafah border crossing.

According to the Egyptian Foreign Ministry in November, around 7,000 people from 60 countries were temporarily staying in the Gaza Strip and wanted to leave. It is unclear how many foreigners and Palestinians with second passports are currently still in Gaza.

Efforts for Austrians

The Austrian-Israeli dual citizen Tal Shoham is still in the Gaza Strip. However, he is probably being held hostage by Hamas. Shoham’s wife and children were released through an agreement between Israel and Hamas on hostage releases in return for a ceasefire and the release of Palestinian prisoners.

As the “Kleine Zeitung” and “Österreich” reported, the foreign policy special advisor to Chancellor Karl Nehammer (ÖVP), Peter Launsky-Tieffenthal, is trying to free 38-year-old Shoham. The diplomat Launsky-Tieffenthal, former UN Under-Secretary-General and later spokesman for the turquoise-blue federal government under Chancellor Sebastian Kurz (ÖVP) and Foreign Office Secretary-General, retired this fall, but soon became Nehammer’s special advisor and now has an office in the Federal Chancellery once more, wrote the “Kleine Zeitung”. Last week, Launsky-Tieffenthal held talks in Israel, Egypt and Qatar regarding Shoham. These turned out to be difficult.

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