03 January,2009 07:09 PM IST | | PTI/Itar-Tass
Russia today completed the evacuation of its citizens and nationals of the former Soviet republics from Gaza strip, after Moscow agreed for a safe corridor with Israel and Hamas.
According to emergency situations ministry, two specially dispatched planes to Amman returned to Moscow this morning with the evacuees fleeing the Israeli strikes on the Gaza strip. President Dmitry Medvedev had ordered the Foreign Ministry to provide aid to Russians in Gaza and evacuate them if necessary amid Israel's air offensive on the region.
The Ilyushin Il-62 and Yakovlev Yak-42 aircraft carrying 102 Russians and 76 nationals from Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Belarus and Moldavia landed at Domodedovo international airport near here.
They were evacuated from Gaza by bus yesterday and taken to Jordan for the onward flights to Moscow, RIA Novosti reported.
Some 250 Russians, mainly the wives and children of Palestinians who studied at Russian universities, live in the Gaza Strip.
The center of urgent psychological assistance under the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry opened a hot line, in connection with the evaluation of Russian citizens from the Gaza Strip.
"The center of urgent psychological assistance has opened a hot line. Relatives of the evacuees can receive both psychological support and all the necessary information at 8 (495) 626 37 07," a Ministry representative said.
Psychologists will also work at the Domodedovo airport, where two planes carrying 178 citizens of Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Moldova, evacuated from the Gaza Strip, are due to land. The evacuees are mostly women and children.
The operation to evacuate Russians was conducted amidst the unceasing rocket firing from the Gaza Strip and response strikes by the Israeli Air Force and artillery.
An agreement had been reached with the Hamas militants through various channels for the evacuation period on the creation of the "green corridor" for two hours, needed for the refugees to get to the checkpoint Eretz on the border of Israel and the Gaza Strip. The International Committee of the Red Cross provided buses for this in the Gaza territory.
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