At the moment, we are aware of four hostages of Hungarian nationality or origin, including two children, in Gaza, and the government has done everything it could to secure them, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó announced on Friday in Tbilisi.

Before leaving for Yerevan, the head of the ministry reported that they were still not aware of any Hungarian deaths, and that all Hungarian citizens temporarily staying in Israel were offered the opportunity to leave, and all those who wished to do so were brought home.

"Unfortunately, during the terrorist attack on Israel, Hamas also took hostages. The Israeli authorities currently face a number of extremely serious challenges, one of which is the identification of the hostages," he emphasized.

He underlined:

now there are 225 hostages held in Gaza in the register, among whom are thirty children.

"In many cases, not even the families themselves are able to make a report, since in several cases it happened that a complete family was kidnapped, or all family members other than the kidnapped person died, which is why it can happen that they are now found out many days after the terrorist attack and the hostage-taking more and more information," he pointed out.

Péter Szijjártó said that the government had recently received three inquiries that there were persons of Hungarian origin and Hungarian citizenship among the hostages.

"On Tuesday, we received information about two persons with Hungarian citizenship, on Wednesday about one person with Hungarian citizenship, and yesterday about another person of Hungarian origin," he listed.

"So we are aware of four hostages with Hungarian involvement, two of them are children, so we were informed about these hostages on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, partly by the Israeli authorities and partly by the families themselves," he added .

He then stated that

there is continuous contact with the Israeli task force set up to free the hostages and several other offices, as well as with the affected families.

The minister then emphasized that everything will be done to secure the Hungarian hostages as soon as possible.

"However, since hostage-taking is, unfortunately, literally a matter of vital importance, and there are very important security aspects here, I ask for your understanding that I cannot provide more information than this at the moment. And we will not give any more information until we have certain information about the hostages, or until we have been able to place them in safety," he stated.

"I would like to repeat the most important thing once more. At the moment, we are aware of four hostages who also have Hungarian citizenship or are of Hungarian origin, and we have taken all possible steps to free them. And we sincerely hope that the Israeli authorities and the organizations involved in the liberation will succeed," he concluded.

MTI

Photo: MTI/TIBOR ROSTA