Lula guarantees that Brazil will try to bring more people from the Gaza Strip

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva received, in the early hours of this Tuesday (14), the group of 32 Brazilians and Palestinians, relatives of Brazilians rescued from the Gaza Strip. The president said the country will continue to search for all those who want to leave the conflict region and return to Brazil or, in the case of foreigners, accompany their Brazilian relatives.

“We will try to make every possible effort in Brazilian diplomacy to try to bring all the Brazilians who are there and who want to come to Brazil. I have also asked some comrades who have non-Brazilian relatives to bring them and we will deal with them. To legalize the people here in Brazil”the president said.

In the night between Monday and Tuesday (14), 32 repatriates from Gaza arrived in Brazil, most of them women and children, for a total of 1,477 people saved from the conflict in the Middle East. They will be welcomed and guided to rebuild their lives in peace. No one is left behind.

📲DIGITAL/PR pic.twitter.com/PwPIgAeha5

— Government of Brazil (@govbr) November 14, 2023

“There are more people in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. As long as there is a list and we have the ability to remove a person, even if it’s just one, we will be willing to send for people. We won’t let any Brazilians stay there due to lack of care from the government”Lula added.

Together with the president, on the tarmac, waiting for the repatriates, were the Foreign Minister, Mauro Vieirathe Minister of Justice and Public Security, Flavio Dino and the Minister of the Secretariat of Communication.

Lula welcomed them on the tarmac and greeted them one by one at the foot of the plane’s steps. He was the first to go down Hasan Habeewho became known for the various videos he made and sent to the press, with frequent testimonies of the anguish he experienced in the Gaza Strip, amidst the Israeli attacks.

“Good evening. I would like to thank the president, the federal government, the Air Force and Itamaraty. We were there for 37 days, a lot of suffering. Sometimes we suffered from hunger and thirst”, Habee said. “What is happening there is a massacre. My daughters were very shocked. In the first and second week we were lying [para elas]. We said that these bombs [jogadas por Israel na Faixa de Gaza] they were for birthday parties, but we couldn’t stay long”, He added.

Habee said her daughters closed the window to feel safe every time an Israeli army plane passed by. He then asked Lula to also organize the visit of her relatives, who were waiting for the release of a second list of Brazilians or relatives of Brazilians.

On Monday morning (13th) Lula had already confirmed that he would be at the Brasilia air base, to greet the group of repatriates. The gesture, of a symbolic nature, concludes a long process of negotiation between Brazilian diplomacy and those responsible for Israel and Egypt for the liberation of people through the Rafah crossing, on the border between Gaza and Egypt.

“The arrival of this tenth plane here in Brazil is the culmination of a very serious work that we owe to many people who work in the government, we owe it to the Brazilian Air Force, to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, who did an exceptional job when he hired the presidency of the UN Security Council”the president said.

Brazilians were only on the seventh list. The country with the largest number of citizens removed from Gaza was the United States. In addition to the United States, eight other countries allowed more than 100 citizens to leave the Gaza Strip. Despite the delay in completing the departure of the Brazilians, foreign relations experts considered the operation a “diplomatic victory”.