As the Middle East conflict inches to a critical level with Israel conducting air strikes on Iran, Israeli Ambassador to the Philippines Ilan Fluss issued yesterday an assurance that Filipinos will remain safe and that they are free to leave the area if they wish. 

Fluss emphasized that “Filipinos are not involved in the ongoing conflict, and Israel would not obstruct any evacuation efforts.”

There are currently about 11,000 Filipinos living in Lebanon, with over 900 having been repatriated by the Philippine government since October last year. 

Meanwhile, 28,000 Filipinos remain in Israel as the conflict sees a rise in casualties due to Israel’s intensified military operations targeting Hezbollah forces and with the fighting spreading to Iran.

Saudi Arabia led Gulf warnings on Saturday of Israeli “escalation” after Israel struck military targets in Iran, which backs Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Palestinian militants Hamas, already at war with Israel.

“The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia expresses its condemnation and denunciation” of the Israeli strikes and emphasized its “firm position rejecting escalation of the conflict in the region,” which “threatens the security and the stability of countries and peoples” in the Middle East, the foreign ministry said on X.

Israel blamed “Iran and its proxies” for attacks on Israel, including an 1 October barrage of missiles fired by Iran in a direct attack against Israeli territory for which Israel had vowed retaliation.

Israel has been at war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip for more than a year, and last month turned its focus to Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon where it escalated air strikes and sent in ground troops.

2.4-K lives lost thus far

Lebanese officials report that more than 2,400 people have lost their lives amid the heightened violence. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is actively working to broker a diplomatic solution, though Fluss noted that any ceasefire agreement must align with Israel’s specific security conditions.

Six people were killed and several others injured following the latest Israeli airstrike on a house in al-Halaniyeh, a town in Lebanon’s Baalbek region.

According to local sources, the deadly attack is part of a series of escalating air raids targeting civilian areas in Lebanon.

In addition to the Baalbek strike, four separate Israeli airstrikes targeted neighborhoods in Kfar Tebnit, a town in southern Lebanon, leaving at least four people dead. The intensifying air raids have resulted in widespread displacement and damage to infrastructure in the region.

Dr. Nasser Yassin, Coordinator for Lebanon’s Emergency Committee, reported that approximately 111 Israeli air raids struck Lebanon within 24 hours leading up to 25 October, bringing the total number of attacks since the conflict’s escalation to 10,950.

To date, Lebanon has opened 1,097 shelters, 928 of which are at full capacity, as the number of displaced people in the country has reached 191,692.

Despite escalating violence, there are no reported casualties among Filipinos in Lebanon. The Philippines’s Migrant Workers Office currently houses 69 Filipinos in government-provided shelters across Beirut.

A total of 290 overseas Filipino workers (OFW) from the country were also charted to a flight back to the country on 25 October. The flight, organized with the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Philippine Embassy in Ankara, Turkey, includes a stopover in Doha, Qatar, before it arrives in Manila.

The OFWs arrived in the Philippines on the morning of Saturday, 26 October.

This recent batch of repatriated workers raises the total to 903 OFWs and 47 dependents repatriated from Lebanon since October of last year, with an additional 1,000 expected to be evacuated by the end of 2024.