Another Filipina has been killed along with her Israeli husband by a missile attack that struck Haifa, Israel, on Sunday, amid sustained hostilities in the Middle East.
The 29-year-old Lucille Jane Gershovich is the second Filipino casualty reported in the prolonged United States-Israel war with Iran, and the third since the war began in June last year.
Her parents-in-law, Vladimir Gershovich and Lena Ostrovsky, also died along with her and her husband, Dmitry Gershovich, during the strike, according to the Department of Foreign Affairs on Tuesday.
The Philippine Embassy in Tel Aviv condemned the killing, blaming the Iranian regime for “indiscriminately” targeting civilians in their war.
“Israel stands in profound solidarity with the bereaved family and the Filipino community, and shares in the grief over the loss of a Filipino life. We mourn together and honor their memory with dignity,” the embassy said.
The embassy already informed her family and is reportedly providing all necessary assistance, including arrangements for the earliest possible repatriation of her remains despite travel restrictions in the Middle East.
Airspace in Kuwait and Bahrain remains closed as of Tuesday, according to data from the DFA.
In March, Mary Ann Velasquez de Vera, a 32-year-old Filipina caregiver from Pangasinan, also died in the exchanges of retaliatory strikes between the US, Israel, and Iran.
She was the lone casualty of the missile attack that struck Tel Aviv when the war erupted on 28 February.
There are an estimated 2.4 million Filipinos in the Middle East, including 800 in Iran, and 31,000 in Israel, though some of them were already repatriated.
Iran rejected US President Donald Trump’s call for a 45-day ceasefire in an ambitious attempt to reopen the Strait of Hormuz—a vital route where 20 percent of the world’s oil supply passes through—as it proposed a permanent end to war.