THE departure of 400 Filipino caregivers to Israel remained on hold despite the ceasefire between the Israeli forces and militant Hamas. Alert level 2 is raised when violent disturbances occur in a limited area of a country. It means restriction phase and a ban on deployment of new hires only, while alert level 1 means precautionary phase but no deployment ban. Alert level 3 requires voluntary repatriation as well as a total ban on overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) deployment, while alert level 4 requires mandatory repatriation and a total ban on the deployment of OFWs. Labor Attaché to Israel Rudy Gabasa told Bello that Israeli Defense's chief spokesman Hidai Zolberman said the Egypt-brokered ceasefire took effect at 2 a.m. on Friday Israel time (7 a.m. in Manila).

Source: Manila Times May 21, 2021 16:41 UTC