A second Mexican woman has left the Gaza Strip along with her husband, Foreign Affairs Minister Alicia Bárcena said Friday.
Bárbara Lango, an anesthesiologist from Sinaloa who had stayed on in Gaza after completing an assignment for Doctors Without Borders, departed the enclave with her husband Suleiman, Bárcena said on X, the social media site formerly called Twitter.
Above a photo of the couple holding up a Mexican flag at the border crossing between Gaza and Egypt, the foreign minister thanked the Mexican Embassy in Egypt and everyone else who made their departure possible.
Thousands of people have been killed in Gaza in recent weeks after Israel began firing rockets into the enclave in response to an Oct. 7 attack by Palestinian militant group Hamas.
Some foreign nationals are now able to leave Gaza, after the Rafah crossing to Egypt opened on Wednesday thanks to an agreement between Egypt, Gaza and Israel mediated by Qatar. Certain people including hundreds of foreign passport-holders were permitted to exit the under siege coastal territory.
Lango’s departure came after Michelle Ravel, also a doctor, left Gaza on Wednesday.
Bárcena said Thursday that Ravel was at the Mexican Embassy in Cairo “in preparation for her repatriation” to Mexico.
The foreign minister last month was critical of Israel for not allowing foreigners to leave Gaza.
“It’s urgent to make an appeal to Israel [to allow foreigners to leave Gaza] because even war has rules,” she said on X on Oct. 14.
While Lango and Ravel have now left, two other Mexicans who were taken hostage by Hamas on Oct. 7 are believed to still be in Gaza.
Ilana Gritzewsky and Orión Hernández Radoux are believed to among more than 200 hostages held captive by Hamas.
Mexico began evacuating its citizens from Israel soon after the war with Hamas broke out. Over 700 Mexicans left the country on flights operated by the Mexican Air Force.
With reports from Aristegui Noticias
