GAZA STRIP, July 9 (RIA Novosti) - A group of about 30 Russian and CIS nationals is in the process of crossing the Erez checkpoint on the Israeli-Palestinian border to escape the violence-torn Gaza Strip, a RIA Novosti correspondent reported Monday.

Tel Aviv agreed to open the Erez checkpoint, previously closed to prevent a spillover of violence, to let civilians leave the area. At least 124 Russians and CIS citizens remain on a list of applicants for evacuation.

The first group of about 80 Russian nationals, mainly Russian women married to Palestinians, were evacuated from the Palestinian enclave amid inter-factional violence June 20.

The evacuees were transported to Jordan's capital Amman by bus and then flown home. The same procedures will be applied to remaining evacuees.

Gaza is now under the control of the radical Islamist movement Hamas, which ousted the secularist pro-presidential Fatah group, leading to the dismissal of the Palestinian coalition government and the split of territories into Gaza and the West Bank, controlled by Fatah.