MANILA — The Philippine government is raising its crisis warning in Gaza to Alert Level 4, making the evacuation of Filipinos in the area mandatory.
“Gaza is now on Alert Level 4, Filipinos must leave,” said Department of Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Eduardo de Vega in an interview over TeleRadyo.
The government said 137 Filipinos in Gaza have asked to return to the Philippines as the conflict between Israel and Hamas escalated since October 7.
The Israeli military said Saturday, Oct. 14, that its forces were preparing to implement a wide range of operational offensive plans as expectations grew of an imminent invasion of the Gaza Strip, a week after Hamas gunmen launched a devastating attack on Israel.
Israel earlier called on Palestinians to evacuate. The Israeli military claimed “hundreds of thousands” of Palestinians had heeded the warning and headed south.
The evacuation call covers an area of 1.1 million residents or about half the territory’s population.
But Palestinians struggled Saturday to flee from areas of Gaza targeted by the Israeli military as they also grappled with worsening water and medical supply shortages.
World leaders urged concerned parties to allow humanitarian aid to Gaza.
Thursday last wek, another Filipino caregiver was killed in the conflict in Israel that followed the Oct. 7 coordinated attacks by Hamas militants.
This raised to three the number of Filipinos who died in the fighting.
“I regret to inform you that, yes, it is confirmed there is a third Filipino casualty, a 49-year-old woman from Negros Occidental,” Foreign Undersecretary Eduardo de Vega said at a briefing in Malacañang, adding that she was among those who attended the ill-fated Tribe of Nova Music Festival near the Gaza border.
Hamas gunmen reportedly killed some 260 people at the festival as the militants launched their attacks that Saturday.
The DFA official did not identify the victim, but in Cadiz City, Negros Occidental, the family of Loreta Villarin Alacre, a caregiver in Israel, has reported that she had been missing since Oct. 7.
De Vega said the Philippine Embassy in Tel Aviv is coordinating with the victim’s sisters, who are in Kuwait, for the repatriation of her remains.
He said there were three more missing Filipinos since last week. “So possibly, these three will still show up. We hope,” De Vega said.
The two earlier reported fatalities were caregivers Paul Vincent Castelvi, 42, of Pampanga province, and Angelyn Peralta Aguirre, 33, of Pangasinan province.
They were both reported killed by Hamas militants under similar circumstances — they accompanied their elderly patients as they sought refuge in bomb shelters. (Luisa Cabato © Philippine Daily Inquirer)
