“As of today, there are over 30 Lithuanian citizens who want to leave Israel, tentatively today the plane should fly to Israel and take our citizens out of there,” NKVC chief adviser Darius Buta told BNS on Wednesday.
According to D. Buta, “Spartan”, which can carry 38 people, would go back to Turkey with Lithuanian citizens, where they would wait for the evacuation of other groups, and the state would help people from Turkey to get to Lithuania.
The representative of the NKVC said that the exact time when the Lithuanian army plane would take off from Turkey to Israel is not yet known.
Army spokesman Jurgis Norvaiša told BNS that the army aircraft that arrived in Turkey on Wednesday night is ready to take off to take Lithuanians from Israel, but he said he could not provide more information yet.
The “Spartan” aircraft of the Lithuanian army sent to the region on Tuesday for the evacuation of Lithuanian citizens landed in Turkey on Wednesday night.
NKVC head Vilmantas Vitkauskas said earlier on Tuesday that the military plane is planned to be kept in Turkey for about a week in case more people need to be evacuated from Israel.
On Wednesday night, an aircraft organized by Avia Solutions Group company “Skyllence” departed from Tel Aviv with more than 140 passengers, most of them Lithuanian citizens, including a group of several dozen pilgrims.
NKVC claims that ten Lithuanian citizens could not fit on this flight.
Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel on Saturday, invading its territory and launching rocket attacks. Israel carried out retaliatory strikes on the Gaza Strip. Hundreds of people have been killed in the conflict, both in Israel and in the Gaza Strip.
Hamas is the Palestinian militant group that rules the Gaza Strip and has been involved in several wars with Israel since taking over the enclave in 2007. The group has been recognized as a terrorist by Israel, the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom and some other countries.
Hamas is supported by Iran, financing the purchase of weapons, supplying them and providing military training. Hamas has a political office in Qatar, where some of its leaders are based.
2.3 million people live in the Gaza Strip. people, but since 2007, Israel, with the help of Egypt, has imposed a blockade on the territory – limiting the ability of goods and the Palestinians themselves to leave or enter the territory by water, sea or air, except for a few tens of thousands of workers.
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2024-10-01 14:42:25
