Multiple Aussie evacuation flights due to leave Israel
Australians stranded in Israel have been given fresh hope as the government announces more evacuation flights after scheduled repatriation ones were cancelled due to security concerns.
Penny Wong
Foreign Minister Penny Wong says a number of flights will take off from Tel Aviv on Sunday for Australians wanting to leave – subject to the security environment.
“We are co-ordinating options with partners who are helping their citizens with departures,” she wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.
“We are also arranging flights to assist travellers with their onward journey from Dubai to Australia.
“We continue working on options for Australians wanting to leave the occupied Palestinian territories.”
Australian Defence Force planes are also on standby in the region to evacuate citizens with hundreds of Australians in Israel wanting to leave.
Two scheduled flights were scrapped as the Australian government assured people affected it was doing everything possible to bring them safely home.
Defence Minister Richard Marles said the government continued to look at all available options to get Australian citizens to safety but some things are out of its control, such as if Israel closes its airspace.
“We are positioned, we have the intent to put in place flights very soon, almost immediately,” he told the ABC’s Insiders program on Sunday.
“There is some greater flexibility that military flights offer in this circumstance.”
More than 800 Australians have left Israel on government-assisted flights but uncertainty remains for hundreds of others who have registered to leave.
Australians have been told if they have other options to leave, they should take them.
Hamas reportedly fired a rocket that landed near Israel’s main airport on Saturday night, just hours after the repatriation flights were cancelled.
The Palestinian militant group is expected to make the airport a major target as Israel prepares to launch a full-scale ground offensive in Gaza.
Mr Marles said Australia supported Israel’s right to defend itself.
“Israel has a right to act against Hamas,” he said.
“It is an absolute tragedy what is now playing out.
“It’s a tragedy for the innocent Israelis who have been victims of this, but obviously a tragedy for innocent Palestinians who find themselves in the middle of this.”
He added that Israel was acting within the rules of war when asked about Tel Aviv cutting access to food, water and electricity to Gaza.
“I’m not casting a negative judgment on what they’re doing,” he said.
“But … I’m not sitting in their control room either, I don’t have all the information available to me that they will have to them.”
The defence minister said he didn’t have information linking Iran to the attack and that Australia would continue to seek a diplomatic relationship with Tehran despite condemning its actions in the region.
“Diplomatic missions are not just there when you have good relationships with countries,” he said.
“In some respects, some of the most important diplomatic missions one has in place are where the relationships are at their most difficult and that would be a fair way to describe our relationship with Iran.”
By Dominic Giannini in Canberra/AAP
Australia typically messing around with evacuating Australians. What a mess!
While Australia does then doesn’t, and nothing much happens, other countries are efficiently flying their citizens out.
Same thing happened during Covid – encouraging and advising Australians to leave … somehow …