Taipei, Nov. 2 (CNA) A Taiwanese doctor working with an international non-governmental organization was among the hundreds of foreign nationals safely evacuated from the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, Taiwan’s Foreign Minister Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) confirmed Thursday.
Amid international media reports that at least 320 foreign nationals and some wounded people had left Gaza for Egypt on Wednesday, Wu told reporters in Taipei that one of them was a Taiwanese, with whom Taiwan’s representative office in Israel was maintaining close contact.
Wu, who was on his way to a legislative hearing, later told lawmakers during the session that the Taiwanese evacuee was a doctor working with an international non-governmental organization.
With the evacuation of the doctor on Wednesday, the foreign ministry is not aware of any other Taiwanese in the Gaza area, Wu said.
According to a list published Wednesday on the Facebook page of the Gaza border crossings authority, NGO workers from Taiwan, Spain, Italy, the Philippines, Haiti, Germany, America, Japan, Austria, Mexico and France are among a group of 320 foreign passport holders and international aid workers who have successfully crossed the Egypt border via the Rafah Crossing.
Included on the list is Taiwan passport holder Shang-Kai Hung, a member of Doctors Without Borders (MSF), a French charity that provides humanitarian medical care worldwide.
When asked to confirm the information, MSF’s Taiwan office issued a Chinese-language press release, saying that one Taiwanese was among the 22 MSF staff members working in Gaza and had left the area via the Rafah Crossing on Wednesday.
In July, the Taiwanese had departed Taiwan to work on humanitarian missions in Gaza, and MSF has been maintaining close contact with the worker’s family, MSF Taiwan Executive Director Houdet Ludivine was cited as saying in the press release.
MSF in France issued an English language press release Wednesday, appealing for the privacy of the 22 evacuated workers to be respected.
“Although some names have been circulated on social media, we ask for their privacy and wellbeing to be respected,” MSF said in the press release.
The limited evacuations came more than three weeks into a total blockade of Gaza by Israel, which has been bombarding the densely populated enclave and has sent in ground troops in response to an attack by Hamas fighters on Israel on Oct. 7.
Meanwhile, Wu told lawmakers during Thursday’s legislative session that some Taiwanese nationals who are still in Israel are now considering leaving the country.
The Taiwan government will keep close contact with them and will assist them if necessary, he said.
On Oct. 20, Taiwan’s government provided a free charter flight to evacuate Taiwanese citizens from Israel.
Later that day, the flight landed in Italy, carrying 14 evacuees from Israel, nine of whom were Taiwanese citizens — a family of five, three backpackers and a student. The other evacuees were four nationals of Guatemala and one from Paraguay — two countries that are diplomatic allies of Taiwan.
At the time, Foreign Minister Wu said that 37 Taiwan citizens had chosen to remain in Israel.
On Oct. 23, Taiwan donated US$70,000 to the Israeli NGO Pitchon-Lev to help provide relief supplies to Israelis affected by the war.
Wu told lawmakers Thursday that Taiwan is also considering offering humanitarian assistance to the Palestine people and is currently in talks with the relevant international charity groups.
