More than thirty Brazilian nationals, trapped in the Gaza Strip, which has been besieged and pounded by the Israeli army for weeks, with their fate turning into a source of tension in the relationship of the largest country of Latin America with the Jewish state, spent yesterday Sunday in Egypt, the Brazilian diplomacy announced.

“The group of 32 Brazilians and their family members is already on Egyptian soil, where it was received by a team from the Brazilian embassy in Cairo, tasked with the final stage of its repatriation operation,” the Brazilian Foreign Ministry explained via X (the former Twitter).

They are expected to have returned to Brazil tonight, the ministry added later, where the country’s president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, plans to meet them.

Two Brazilian nationals have decided to remain in the Gaza Strip, according to the Foreign Ministry.

In total, 17 children, 9 women and 6 men left the Palestinian enclave through the border crossing at Rafah, on the border with Egypt.

The delay in the expedited removal process for the Brazilians further increased the tension in the bilateral relationship, which was also escalated by the announcement by the Israeli intelligence agency, the Mossad, that it had helped prevent a Hezbollah attack on Brazilian territory.

The irritation of President Lula’s government was exacerbated by the fact that Daniel Jonsin, Israel’s ambassador to Brasilia, a few days ago met and was photographed in the Brazilian Congress with far-right politicians, in particular with former President Jair Bolsonaro, Lula’s sworn enemy, while in an interview in the Brazilian newspaper O Globo claimed that Hezbollah “chose” Brazil because “there are people who help it” in the country, a statement that the head of Brazil’s federal police called “indecent”.