Georgia’s Israel Ambassador says no reports of injured, missing or killed Georgian citizens amid Hamas attacks

Georgian Ambassador to Israel Lasha Zhvania on Monday said no reports on injured, missing or killed Georgian citizens had been received by his office amid ongoing attacks by Hamas in Israeli territory. Photo: Lasha Zhvania/Facebook

Agenda.ge, 09 Oct 2023 - 14:40, Tbilisi,Georgia

Georgian Ambassador to Israel Lasha Zhvania on Monday said no reports on injured, missing or killed Georgian citizens had been received by his office amid ongoing attacks by Hamas in Israeli territory.

The Israeli army has not yet taken control of all settlements the terrorists have entered from, so it is still difficult to obtain information. Not all the dead have been identified yet”, he said.

Zhvania added two Georgian Jews had died following the attacks. 

Two Georgian Jews have died so far. Buzudashvili, a police officer who heroically fulfilled his duty, and another young man, Avi Abraham Kubelashvili, died during the clashes. We share the tragedy and pain of our brothers and sisters and stand with them in this time of distress and war”, Lasha Zhvania said.

In another comment with the Georgian-based Imedi TV channel Zhvania an Israel-Georgia flight had been cancelled as the Czech company providing the jet had refused to provide the aircraft.

Accordingly, we, almost half the Embassy, [remained] at the airport and did not leave our citizens. We helped them as much as possible. Where we could, we offered seats on the plane, and we helped to change tickets to other flights. Priority was given to the passengers who did not have a place to stay in Israel or had no relatives, and did not have the financial resources to stay in a hotel. We reimbursed a part of the cost of accommodation for one night, and then we left at night", Zhvania said.

The Embassy in Israel has also launched a hotline for Georgian citizens amid the violence.

In attacks that started on the weekend, Hamas launched more than 5,000 rockets from Gaza into the Israeli territory, with the group’s fighters entering Israeli territories and kidnapping citizens, both alive and dead. At least 700 people have been killed and over 2,315 injured in the shelling, as the Israeli Government declared a state of war alert.