MANILA, Philippines- Sinabi ni Israel Ambassador to the Philippines Ilan Fluss na nais nilang makita na ligtas ang mga Pinoy at malayang makaalis ng lugar sa gitna ng patuloy na bakbakan sa pagitan ng Israel at grupo ng Hezbollah sa Lebanon,
“We are not preventing also the evacuation of Filipinos from Lebanon, certainly not. Filipinos are not part of this war. We are not targeting them. We want to see them safe,” ang sinabi ni Fluss sa sa isang panayam.
Sa ulat, tinatayang 11,000 Pilipino ang nakatira sa Lebanon.
May 700 overseas Filipino workers at kanilang dependents ang nailikas na ng gobyerno ng Pilipinas mula nang sumiklab ang putukan.
Hinikayat naman ng gobyerno ang mga Pilipino sa Lebanon na bumalik na ng Pilipinas habang nananatiling available ang mga biyahe.
Binisita naman ni US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken ang Israel at isinulong na matigil na ang bakbakan sa Gaza at isang diplomatic solution ang kailangan sa labanan sa Lebanon.
Gayunman, sinabi ni Fluss na may mga kondisyon ang Israel.
“Israel is of course open and would like to end hostilities, but as I said we need to have some conditions. Number one, release of the hostages, number two to make sure Hezbollah or Hamas cannot regroup,” aniya pa rin.
“We have to make sure that there will not be a Hamas or terror organization preparing for another attack against the state of Israel,” dagdag na wika nito.
Sa isang panayam, matatandaan na kinilala ni Fluss ang panggigipit ng international community sa naging aksyon ng Israel.
Ipinaalala rin sa kanya ang naging pagkondena ng United Nations Secretary General sa “collective punishment” sa mga mamamayan ng Palestinian.
“I admit that there is a lot of human suffering and of course, there are many casualties, but out of the 42,000, how many of them are Hamas operatives and Hamas combatants? This is something that is not shared by the Hamas Ministry of Health. Let them share the numbers. We are targeting Hamas operatives. We’re not targeting civilians,” ang paliwanag ni Fluss.
“What about the UN condemnation of the women, Israeli women who were sexually abused in October 7. We are seeing a biased approach of the UN against Israel because of politics,” dagdag na wika nito.
Inulit naman ni Fluss na ang pag-atake ng Israel ay hindi direkta sa mga sibilyan subalit “the moment a humanitarian institution such as a school is becoming a base of Hamas or Hezbollah, it becomes a military subject.”
Samantala, itinaas naman ng gobyerno ng Pilipinas sa Alert Level 2 ang sitwasyon sa Israel, na ang ibig sabihin ay “prohibition of non-essential travel and the entry of new hires.”
“We have a big need for workers, and we have asked the Philippine government to uplift the ban or lower the alert level. But of course, according to the assessments of DFA (Department of Foreign Affairs) and implemented by the Department of Migrant Workers, the decision here is to leave Israel under Alert Level 2 so that no workers coming to Israel, unfortunately,” ang sinabi pa ni Fluss.
Sa ngayon, tinatayang 28,000 Pinoy ang nananatili sa Israel. Kris Jose
