He first group of citizens with Spanish and Palestinian nationality that are being evacuees from the Gaza Strip It is already at the Egyptian checkpoint of the Rafah crossing, after having passed the control of the Palestinian side. This was confirmed this Monday by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, who hopes that this procedure will be completed throughout the day.

“The first Spanish-Palestinians They have crossed the Palestinian checkpoint. There is a double checkpoint. A Palestinian one and then an Egyptian one. They are already at the Egyptian checkpoint for now definitively enter Egypt“Albares stated in statements to the press, upon arrival at a meeting with his European counterparts in Brussels. The group, according to Efe and Europa Press, is made up of some 40 people with Spanish passports and their familieshalf of them minors.

His departure from Gaza occurs after the contacts that Albares has maintained in recent days with his counterparts from Egypt and Israel, as explained by the Foreign Minister himself, who has indicated that “everything indicates” that The evacuation can be completed this Monday. “At the moment everything is going well and we hope it ends equally well,” she added.

Once on Egyptian soil, it is expected that the evacuees will be transferred by Ministry of Defense planes to Spain, as indicated by the head of the latter department, Margaret Robles. According to government calculations, between 140 and 170 Spaniards They will be able to leave Gaza through the Rafah crossing, which connects the Palestinian enclave with Egypt.

Until now they had only managed to leave the enclave a Spaniard who works for Doctors Without Borders and another who works for the UN, after Israel allowed the aforementioned crossing to be opened on November 1 to allow the evacuation of foreign citizens and those injured by the bombings on the Strip.

Upon his arrival at the meeting of foreign ministers in Brussels, Albares insisted that the European Union ask for a humanitarian ceasefire, which he has claimed as “necessary” to allow humanitarian aid to enter Gaza. The minister brings to this meeting the Spanish proposal to hold a peace conference to advance the solution to the conflict and give an international platform to the two state solutionof which he said that the Arab countries gathered in Saudi Arabia have already “made theirs.”

“Europe must mobilize for a viable Palestinian state to existwhich involves the West Bank, Gaza and a corridor that connects them,” Albares defended, ensuring that this means giving a “hopeful political horizon” to the Palestinians and emphasizing that the international conference is in line with achieving a “definitive peace.” and that the “horror” of the Hamas attacks and Israeli bombings.