Sharjah 24 - AFP: Ukraine and Russia both said Thursday they had evacuated dozens of their citizens from the Gaza Strip following hostilities between Israel and armed Palestinian groups there.
The worst exchange of fire in years between the Jewish state and Palestinian groups in the enclave started on May 10 after clashes in Al Quds Al-Aqsa mosque compound.
In 11 days of fighting, Israeli air strikes and artillery fire on Gaza killed 254 Palestinians, including 66 children, and wounded more than 1,900 people, the health ministry in Gaza says.
Rocket and other fire from Gaza claimed 12 lives in Israel, including one child and an Arab-Israeli teenager, medics say. Some 357 people in Israel were wounded.
A plane carrying 109 Ukrainian passport-holders who had requested to leave the enclave landed in a Kiev airport early Thursday, President Volodymyr Zelensky's office said in a statement.
Zelensky hailed the "successful homecoming" and said the same plane had delivered to Kiev thirteen Moldovans and four Bulgarian nationals.
Ukrainian diplomats had held "a series of difficult negotiations" to ensure the safe passage to Ukraine, Zelensky's office said.
Separately Moscow announced Thursday that it had also brought dozens of its nationals to Russia, with the emergency situations ministry saying a plane had repatriated 64 people from Gaza.
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