2023-10-09 08:29:20
While Hungary and Poland, for example, are flying out citizens separately from Israel, which has become a war zone, Austria points to regular exit options that still exist. “There are still scheduled flights and the border crossings with Jordan are still open,” explained Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg (ÖVP) on Monday in the “Morgenjournal” of ORF radio Ö1.
Around 8,000 Austrians live in Israel, and more than 200 are registered as travelers. The Austrian authorities are trying to “keep in touch with everyone,” said Schallenberg, who emphasized that a mobile crisis team from the Foreign Ministry was heading to Tel Aviv to reinforce the Austrian embassy in Israel. A crisis team is also deployed at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv. Schallenberg appealed to all Austrians in the Middle East to follow the news and follow the authorities’ instructions.
After the major attacks on Israel by the Islamist Hamas, Hungary has meanwhile flown 215 citizens out of Tel Aviv. The two Hungarian Air Force planes landed at Budapest airport early Monday morning, Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said on his Facebook page. At the same time, he thanked the aviation authorities of Israel, Cyprus, Greece, Turkey, Bulgaria and Romania for quickly issuing the necessary permits. The two Airbus A319 aircraft used serve as flight standby for the Hungarian government.
The first Polish citizens were brought to safety from Israel by the Polish Air Force, among others. After a government plane landed in the early hours of the morning, two Hercules military transport planes landed at the airport in Warsaw, Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak announced on Platform X on Monday. According to the PAP news agency, the first Boeing government plane to arrive had brought back 120 Polish citizens from Israel, including a group of students from a music school. Blaszczak now wrote regarding more than 120 other people who were flown out in the military transports. The government machine is already on its way back to Israel to bring the next citizens from there to safety.
Romania flew 245 of its citizens out of Tel Aviv. This also included two groups of pilgrims, as the Romanian Foreign Ministry announced on Monday. Four planes flew to Israel, two of them from the state airline Tarom and two from private airlines. On site, Romanian diplomats from the representatives in Tel Aviv and Ramallah looked following the citizens who were to be flown out. Bucharest also sent a crisis response team to Israel for these people.
Because of the escalation of violence, airlines around the world – including the AUA – canceled dozens of flights to Israel over the weekend. As was stated on the arrival boards at Ben-Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv on Saturday, AUA parent company Lufthansa, Air France, Ryanair, Emirates, Aegan Airlines and American Airlines, among others, canceled connections to the Israeli metropolis.
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