(JTA) — Israel said that it has moved more than 200 people out of a northern province of Ethiopia where a militia is fighting against government troops.
174 people from the city of Gondar in the Amhara province are among the people who have to leave. Gondar has long been a place where people wait for permission to move to Israel. In that group were both Israeli citizens and people who could move to Israel.
Another 30 Israelis had to leave the capital of Amhara, Bahir Dar. All of the refugees were flown to Addis Ababa, the city of Ethiopia, and some of them went on to Israel.
About 150,000 Ethiopian Jews live in Israel. Many of them were flown from Ethiopia in the 1980s and 1990s or are their children or grandchildren. There are still thousands of people in Ethiopia who want to move to Israel.
In a statement, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, “The State of Israel takes care of its citizens no matter where they are.” “In the last few days, Israeli citizens and people from Ethiopia who are qualified for aliyah (immigration) have been in trouble in areas of fighting. I told people to get them out of there.”
The Times of Israel says that Netanyahu’s statement came a day after an Ethiopian-Israeli activist group said it would protest outside his home on behalf of the Ethiopian Jews who are in danger.
Ethiopian troops are fighting a militia in Amhara, and the government there announced a state of emergency last week. Ethiopia’s civil war finished in November of last year when rebels and the government reached a peace deal.
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