EREZ CHECKPOINT (Israel), June 20 (RIA Novosti) - A total of 69 Russians and seven Belarusians have been evacuated from the Gaza Strip via Israel and headed toward the Jordanian border, a RIA Novosti correspondent reported Wednesday.

A total of 141 Russians were on the evacuee list but some of them later refused to be evacuated. Tel Aviv agreed to open the Erez checkpoint, the main crossing point into Israel, closed last week to prevent a spillover of violence, to let civilians leave the area. The evacuees will be transported to Jordan's capital Amman by bus and then flown home.

The first group of Russians passed the checkpoint at 9:10 a.m. GMT.

Gaza has been under the full control of radical Islamic movement Hamas since last week's fighting with the pro-presidential Fatah movement, which left at least 100 people dead.