KIEV (JTA) — Ukraine asked Israel to pay compensation to the family of a Ukrainian mother and child killed in the Gaza Strip.
A Jan. 8 Foreign Affairs Ministry statement called on Israel to compensate the family of Olvera Al-Jarou who was killed in a strike Thursday eastern part of Gaza Strip with her 2-year-old son.
"Ukraine expects Israeli authorities to carry out a thorough inquiry concerning the circumstances of the tragedy, provide necessary aid to the affected children and also pay out compensation to the family of the slain," the statement said.
Olvera Al-Jarou was married to a Palestinian doctor, who trained in Ukraine; she and her son became the first foreign national to die in the Gaza war between Israel and Hamas terrorists. The ministry said that two of her other children sustained severe wounds and were hospitalized. The New York Times quoted her husband as saying that he had urged his wife to leave Gaza earlier, but she refused.
Ukraine’s President Victor Yuschenko is concerned about nearly 300 Ukrainian citizens who remain in Gaza, Iryna Vannykova, his press secretary, told media on January 9. Early in the conflict, launched last month after Hamas ended a fragile cease-fire, Israel allowed out foreign nationals; so far 93 Ukrainians have left.
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