EREZ BORDER CROSSING (Gaza), January 2 (RIA Novosti) - Russian diplomats completed on Friday the evacuation of Russian citizens from the Gaza Strip, which has been hit by massive Israeli airstrikes since Saturday.

A total of 101 Russian nationals and about 70 citizens of Ukraine, Moldova, Kazakhstan and Belarus have crossed the border.

The citizens from Russia and other Soviet republics, who have been evacuated from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict area, are boarding buses, which will deliver them to Jordan from where planes of the Russian Emergencies Ministry will fly them to Moscow.

Israel began a massive air offensive on Gaza on Saturday in response to rocket and mortar fire by militants on southern Israel which have left four Israelis dead.

Tel Aviv has called it "an all-out war" against the Islamic militant group Hamas which controls Gaza. Some 403 Palestinians have been killed in the airstrikes, with over 2,000 injured.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev earlier instructed the Foreign Ministry to provide aid to Russians in Gaza and evacuate them if necessary amid Israel's air offensive on the region.