The Israeli Defense Forces aided an international non-profit organization in evacuating nearly 70 orphans from Gaza and transferred them to safety in Bethlehem in the Biblical region of Judea and Samaria, also known as the West Bank.
The IDF carried out the unusual operation Monday with the approval of the National Security Council and conducted it in coordination with the Civil Administration.
According to several reports the children, along with 11 staff members and their families from the charity group SOS Children’s Villages International, were evacuated from Rafah and transferred to Bethlehem.
The children are between the ages of 2 and 14 and were already in the care of the organization before the start of the war. However, they did receive permission from legal guardians to be relocated, the SOS said in a statement.
“The successful evacuation gives a glimmer of hope,” says Angela Maria Rosales, Chief Programme Officer at SOS Children’s Villages International.
The group passed through Israeli territory to reach Bethlehem, which is under the control of the Palestinian Authority.
All Israel News reports the operation was completed at the request of the German embassy and without the knowledge of Israel’s war cabinet or the terror organization, Hamas.
The
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