Eight flights planned
Foreign Office: Lufthansa evacuates Germans from Israel
October 10, 2023, 9:45 p.m
Lufthansa will operate several special flights to evacuate Germans from Israel on Thursday and Friday. This is announced by the Foreign Office. Information about ticket allocation will follow on Wednesday.
According to insiders, Lufthansa is supposed to bring Germans out of Israel on special flights on Thursday and Friday at the request of the Foreign Office. There should be four flights per day. Foreign Office sources said the final technical details were being clarified. The authority wants to inform German citizens registered in the ELEFAND crisis preparedness list on Wednesday about how tickets for the special flights with Lufthansa can be booked. German citizens who are not yet registered and want to leave the country should register in ELEFAND immediately.
In response to a request from ntv.de, the Foreign Office said that 4,500 German citizens are on the crisis preparedness list. They are in close contact with the Israeli authorities and the people in Israel, with whom they are discussing possible exit options. They would be continuously informed about possible ways to leave Israel. “You can also use lesser-known airlines, such as TUS-Airways, which offer direct flights to Düsseldorf, but also Arkia or Israir,” says the German Embassy in Tel Aviv on its website.
A message from the embassy, which is available to ntv.de as an email, also states that a bus transfer from the city to Amman Airport in Jordan was organized on Wednesday for people with a valid German passport. Once there, travelers should use commercial flights and book them themselves.
“We started evacuation flights with other airlines. We arranged flight connections through the crisis hotline – those who were at the airport could contact us -. You then had to change trains on some routes. I understand that this was a terrible situation Situation is, but if you have 100,000 calls at the same time, then you have to prioritize,” said Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock on ZDF. There had previously been criticism that the Foreign Office did not care enough about German nationals.
Other EU states are starting return campaigns
Several other European countries are also bringing their compatriots from Israel home in light of the fighting. The Lufthansa subsidiary Swiss explained that after the first special flight on Tuesday, it was planning another one on Wednesday. The 215 available seats on the plane can be booked via a special hotline. According to the government in Bern, around 28,000 Swiss are in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories.
Austria is also preparing to evacuate its citizens from Israel on Wednesday and is using a military transport aircraft for this purpose. Around 200 Austrians have so far informed the authorities that they want to leave the country. Hungary, Portugal and Iceland have also already organized evacuation flights. France wants to bring citizens back from Israel on a special flight on Thursday. Foreign Minister Catherine Collona announced in Paris that Air France would operate the flight.