Australians and their families were able to escape Israel thanks to two repatriation aircraft, the first of which has touched down in Sydney.
Around 74 Australians and their children were among the 222 passengers on board the Qatar Airways flight as it departed Dubai earlier today.
After being evacuated from danger in Tel Aviv by an Australian Air Force flight on Saturday, the passengers were in Dubai. They then departed on the homeward relief flight.
According to a statement made earlier today by the Australian government, there are actually two flights out of Israel scheduled for repatriation. There probably won’t be any more aircraft to bring Australians home, according to deputy prime minister Richard Marles.
“We do believe these flights meet the immediate demand,” he stated.
More than 45 Australians have requested assistance from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) in Gaza, which is the focus of the government at the moment.
“Clearly people who are in Gaza right now are in a very, very difficult situation,” Marles stated. “We are encouraging them to move south within Gaza, to heed the call of Israel in that respect.”
The government is concentrating on coordinating with other nations in an effort to create a humanitarian exit from Gaza.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong stated yesterday, “We continue to conduct a lot of interaction with the United States, with Israel, and with Egypt to try and guarantee passage for Australians out of Gaza.
We haven’t been able to do that thus far because of how challenging the security situation is there. We’ll keep working as hard as we can to make that crossing possible.
In the meantime, Emirates announced this morning that it will be adding a special flight for humanitarian purposes to its itinerary from Dubai to Sydney. At 9.40 a.m. local time on Thursday, the flight will depart Dubai.
On Sunday evening, Australian time, three flights carrying more than 250 Australians and their families left Tel Aviv; two of the flights were operated by the RAAF, and the third was a Qantas-chartered flight.
In addition to the Emirates flight, Australia has been setting up onward travel from Dubai, and Qantas has scheduled a flight from London.
A spokeswoman for Emirates stated in a statement that Australians who want to board the flight should get in touch with the centre or sales offices, or their local Australian consulate or embassy.
“Emirates stands ready to help impacted Australians return home, through our regularly scheduled services between Dubai and Australia, as well as the deployment of additional humanitarian flights as needed,” said a spokeswoman.
“We have made aircraft and crew available and put them on standby to activate over the past days, pending confirmation of passenger numbers and other details from the Australian government.”
