A Taiwanese doctor working with an international non-governmental organization (NGO) was among the hundreds of foreign nationals safely evacuated from the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) said yesterday.
Amid international media reports that at least 320 foreign nationals and some wounded people had left Gaza for Egypt on Wednesday, Wu told reporters in Taipei that one of them was a Taiwanese, with whom Taiwan’s representative office in Israel was maintaining close contact.
Wu, who was on his way to a legislative hearing, later told lawmakers that the Taiwanese evacuee was a doctor working with an international NGO.
Photo: CNA
With the evacuation of the doctor, the ministry is not aware of any other Taiwanese in the Gaza area, Wu said.
According to a list published on Wednesday on the Facebook page of the Gaza border crossings authority, NGO workers from Taiwan, Austria, France, Germany, Haiti, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Philippines, Spain and the US, were among a group of 320 foreign passport holders and international aid workers who had crossed the Egypt border via the Rafah Crossing.
On the list was Taiwan passport holder Hung Shang-kai, a member of Doctors Without Borders (MSF), a French charity that provides humanitarian medical care worldwide.
Asked to confirm the information, MSF’s Taiwan office issued a Chinese-language press release, saying that one Taiwanese was among the 22 MSF staff members working in Gaza and had left the area via the Rafah Crossing on Wednesday.
The doctor in July had left Taiwan to work on humanitarian missions in Gaza, and MSF has been maintaining close contact with the worker’s family, MSF Taiwan executive director Houdet Ludivine was cited as saying in the press release.
MSF in France on Wednesday issued an English-language press release, asking that the privacy of the 22 evacuated workers be respected.
“Although some names have been circulated on social media, we ask for their privacy and well-being to be respected,” MSF said in the press release.
The limited evacuations came more than three weeks into a total blockade of Gaza by Israel, which has been bombarding the enclave and has sent in ground troops in response to an attack by Hamas fighters on Israel on Oct. 7.
Meanwhile, Wu told lawmakers yesterday that some Taiwanese who are still in Israel are now considering leaving the country.
The government will keep close contact with them and assist them if necessary, he said.
On Oct. 20, the government provided a free charter flight to evacuate Taiwanese from Israel.
Later that day, the flight landed in Italy, carrying 14 evacuees from Israel, nine of whom were Taiwanese — a family of five, three backpackers and a student.
The other evacuees were four holders of Guatemalan passports and one from Paraguay — two countries that are diplomatic allies of Taiwan.
At the time, Wu said that 37 Taiwanese had chosen to remain in Israel.
On Oct. 23, Taiwan donated US$70,000 to Israeli NGO Pitchon-Lev to help provide relief supplies to Israelis affected by the war.
Wu told lawmakers that Taiwan is also considering offering humanitarian assistance to Palestinians and is in talks with international charity groups.
Taipei has once again made it to the top 100 in Oxford Economics’ Global Cities Index 2025 report, moving up five places from last year to 60. The annual index, which was published last month, evaluated 1,000 of the most populated metropolises based on five indices — economics, human capital, quality of life, environment and governance. New York maintained its top spot this year, placing first in the economics index thanks to the strength of its vibrant financial industry and economic stability. Taipei ranked 263rd in economics, 44th in human capital, 15th in quality of life, 284th for environment and 75th in governance,
The Sports Administration yesterday demanded an apology from the national table tennis association for barring 17-year-old Yeh Yi-tian (葉伊恬) from competing in the upcoming World Table Tennis (WTT) United States Smash tournament in Las Vegas this July. The sports agency said in a statement that the Chinese Taipei Table Tennis Association (CTTTA) must explain to the public why it withdrew Yeh from the WTT tournament in Las Vegas. The sports agency said it contacted the association to express its disapproval of the decision-making process after receiving a complaint from Yeh’s coach, Chuang
Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) tendered his resignation last night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by media. His resignation was immediately accepted by the Control Yuan. In a statement explaining why he had resigned, Lee apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon on May 20. The issue first came to light late last month, when TVBS News reported that Lee had instructed his driver to take the dog to the salon. The news channel broadcast photos that it said were taken by an unnamed whistle-blower, which purportedly showed the
A former officer in China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) who witnessed the aftermath of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre has warned that Taiwan could face a similar fate if China attempts to unify the country by force. Li Xiaoming (李曉明), who was deployed to Beijing as a junior officer during the crackdown, said Taiwanese people should study the massacre carefully, because it offers a glimpse of what Beijing is willing to do to suppress dissent. “What happened in Tiananmen Square could happen in Taiwan too,” Li told CNA in a May 22 interview, ahead of the massacre’s 36th anniversary. “If Taiwanese students or
RSS