There was no explanation for Brazilians being off the Gaza exit list

The advisor for International Affairs to the Presidency of the Republic, Celso Amorim, stated that “there was no explanation” for Brazilians being outside the list of authorization to leave the Gaza Strip. According to Itamaraty, 34 Brazilians and close family members are awaiting repatriation near the border with Egypt. A new group of more than 400 foreigners and Palestinians with dual nationality left Gaza this Monday (6) towards Egypt, however, no Brazilian was on the list.

“The situation is very complex, with no light at the end of the tunnel… There was no explanation for the non-inclusion of Brazilians. They simply gave priority to other countries”, said Amorim in an interview with the newspaper The globe. According to the former chancellor, the government continues to negotiate the withdrawal of Brazilians from the region. The conflict began almost a month ago, on October 7, after Hamas carried out a series of terrorist attacks against Israel.

Amorim stated that he expects a “quick decision” on repatriation. “We have been asking for release for more than 15 days. There is no reason for any suspicion. If there was a problem with any of the nationals, they could have spoken out straight away. It’s an absurd situation, where there are 15 children in a group of 32 people,” he said. Last week, Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira said he received a guarantee from Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen that Brazilians will leave the Gaza Strip by Wednesday (8).

Among the speculations for the group’s non-inclusion on the list is the possibility of retaliation against the Brazilian government for its positions in votes at the UN Security Council. Brazil chaired the council in October and defended, in a proposed resolution, humanitarian pauses in the conflict, but did not mention Israel’s right to defend itself against aggression perpetrated by Hamas. The text was vetoed by the United States.

Furthermore, Brazil abstained from voting on a draft resolution presented by the Americans, which reaffirmed “the inherent right of all States to individual and collective self-defense”. This week, the president of the PT, federal deputy Gleisi Hoffmann (PR), went so far as to say that Israel “discriminates” against Brazil by leaving Brazilians out of the third list of civilians authorized to leave the region, without, according to her, providing any explanation. for this attitude.

“Unfortunately, the Israeli government signals that it has established a political hierarchy for the release of civilians, favoring some countries over others. In the same way that we defend the release of Israeli hostages, we cannot admit that Brazilian civilians remain threatened in a region under military massacre”, said Gleisi in the social network on the last day 3.

However, the hypothesis about an alleged retaliation by Israel against Brazil is not addressed by the government, as citizens of other nationalities are still awaiting authorization to leave the Gaza Strip. Citizens of Australia, Austria, Germany, Finland, Indonesia, Jordan, Japan, Azerbaijan, Belgium, South Korea, Croatia, Greece, Netherlands, Hungary, Italy, Macedonia, Mexico, Switzerland, Sri Lanka, between others.