Israel will fast track the evacuation of some of the Ethiopian Jews waiting in refugee camps in war-torn Ethiopia, Immigration and Integration Minister Pnina Tamano Shata and Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked agreed on Tuesday as fighting between government forces and Tigrayan rebels escalates.
The evacuees are first-degree relatives of Israeli citizens living in the country and are entitled to immigrate to Israel according to a previous government decision from 2015 that has yet to be fully implemented.
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Israeli Ethiopians hold pictures of relatives waiting in Ethiopia to immigrate to Israel, in front of Knesset in Jerusalem, March 12, 2018
(Photo: AFP)
According to preliminary estimates, the number of evacuees will exceed the 3,000 mark that was stipulated for the year 2021 in the current state budget.
The rescue mission does not include thousands of people waiting in refugee camps in Gondar and Addis Ababa whose families in Israel are not close relatives.
Additionally, only those who appear on the lists approved in 2015 will be able to make Aliyah while others will be forced to stay in Ethiopia and face the war. This may create a situation in which families that have been waiting in camps for many years may be separated as some got married and had children in the meantime.
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Ethiopian government soldiers ride in the back of a truck on a road near Agula, north of Mekele, in the Tigray region of northern Ethiopia
(Photo: AP)
Meanwhile, the Israeli families of some 10,000 Ethiopian Jews are calling for urgent action after it emerged the government is hesitant to launch an operation to rescue the Jewish community stranded in the African country after the fighting between government forces and Tigrayan rebels had escalated.