War in the Middle East
Updated October 12, 2023, 7:26 pm
©Portal
The first special flight from Israel landed in Frankfurt am Main late Thursday afternoon. According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 372 Germans stranded in Israel were on board. Four more evacuation flights are planned for Friday.
The first special flight carrying Germans stranded in Israel landed in Germany late Thursday afternoon. The plane with, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 372 Germans on board came from Tel Aviv and arrived at Frankfurt am Main airport about an hour late. A few minutes later, the second special Lufthansa flight from Israel also landed in Munich, as can be seen on the website flighttracker24.com.
Two more special flights from Israel are expected to land later in the evening. “The fourth special flight ordered by the federal government from Lufthansa left Tel Aviv,” the Foreign Ministry wrote on the online service X, formerly known as Twitter. Around 950 Germans reportedly managed to leave Israel on Thursday. “Continues tomorrow”, continued the ministry.
On Friday, a total of four planes are scheduled to bring German citizens home from Israel. According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a ferry is also expected to be made available on Thursday afternoon to bring the Germans to Cyprus.
More than 100,000 German citizens in Israel
According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, there are more than 100,000 German citizens in Israel, the majority of whom have dual citizenship. A Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Wednesday that around 5,000 people were registered on the crisis list at the German embassy in Israel. But he couldn’t tell if all these people wanted to leave.
The radical Islamic group Hamas launched a major attack on Israel on Saturday. He fired thousands of rockets at Israel and invaded the country with hundreds of fighters. The attackers took around 150 hostages, apparently including several people with German and Israeli citizenship. According to the Israeli government, the militants killed 1,200 people.
Read too: “Confused situation”: how things could continue in Israel
The Israeli army placed the Gaza Strip under constant fire in response to the Hamas attack. According to the latest information from local authorities, more than 1,350 people have been killed in Palestinian territory.
The first countries had already begun repatriation operations for stranded citizens immediately after the Hamas attack began. On Monday, three military planes carrying Polish citizens evacuated from Israel landed in Warsaw. Since then, several other EU countries have also organized special flights and brought hundreds of people back to their home countries. (afp/jst)
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Teaser image: © dpa/Hannes Albert