GAZA STRIP, July 9 (RIA Novosti) - A group of 37 Russian and CIS nationals crossed the Erez checkpoint on the Israeli-Palestinian border Monday to escape the violence-torn Gaza Strip, a RIA Novosti correspondent said.
Tel Aviv agreed to open the Erez checkpoint, previously closed to prevent a spillover of violence, to allow civilians leave the area.
The group included 20 Russians, 10 Ukrainians, three Belarusian and three Kazakh nationals.
"It is my biggest dream that my children could see their grandmothers, both in Belarus and in the Gaza Strip," said an evacuee, who left the area together with her husband and two children.
"I do not think that I am asking for much, I think it's normal," the woman said.
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.
The first group of about 80 Russian nationals, mainly Russian women married to Palestinians, was 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 the remaining evacuees.
Meanwhile, Russian diplomats said Monday they did not rule out the possibility of further evacuation attempts. At least 124 Russians and CIS citizens remain on a list of applicants for evacuation, but they did not turn up at the Erez checkpoint at the designated time Monday.
"A third stage [of evacuation] is possible," said Alexey Pogodin, a Russian envoy with the Palestinian authorities.
"We will assist anyone [among Russians in Gaza] who expresses a desire to leave the area," the diplomat said.
