Gaza Strip evacuation of Ukrainians: Defence Intelligence reveals details
Gaza Strip evacuation of Ukrainians: Defence Intelligence reveals details (Getty Images)
The Defence Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense was responsible for rescuing Ukrainians from the Gaza Strip. Intelligence officers revealed details of the mission.
An officer of the agency with the call sign 'Twenty-First,' who has been in the Armed Forces since February 2022, was one of the participants in the special operation. Before the operation in the Gaza Strip, he participated in combat actions, including on the occupied territory of Ukraine.
According to him, the DI received the task to rescue Ukrainians from the Gaza Strip immediately after the attack by Hamas on October 7, 2023. According to the officer, the situation was very sensitive for perception in Ukraine, Western partners, and Arab countries.
"We developed several evacuation options, but something always goes wrong, there are always risks. It was such an active game where we had to make new decisions all the time," he said.
The first people were evacuated on November 7. The plan was implemented through official evacuation via a green corridor. The intelligence officer said there were several stages of evacuation. The first one was submitting lists of citizens for approval, and then Ukrainians were taken out of the Gaza territory on certain days.
"We left faster than citizens of the Russian Federation, which was also a pleasant result of our work," the intelligence officer said, adding that Russians could prepare information operations against Ukraine.
According to him, the evacuation operation ended in December 2023 when the third group of citizens, which was the largest, left. Further evacuation was carried out in smaller groups with the participation of the embassy.
Israel's war with the Palestinian Hamas
On October 7, 2023, Hamas militants launched a military attack on Israeli territory from the Gaza Strip. In the first few days, radical Islamists killed 1200 civilians and soldiers and abducted about 250 people.
At the end of October, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) launched a ground military operation in the Gaza Strip. On January 22, the Israel Defense Forces began a new major offensive.
On January 24, Israel and Hamas reached a preliminary agreement on a ceasefire for a month and a new agreement for the release of hostages.
