Polish Air Force helps evacuate 65 more Poles from Israel

The Polish Air Force's B-737 passenger jet carrying 65 Poles who were evacuated from Israel through Jordan by road landed at Warsaw Chopin Airport on Thursday night.

Photo: X/Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz
Photo: X/Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz

"Our compatriots evacuated from Israel via Jordan are already in Poland," Defence Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz wrote on the X platform late on Thursday.

"The Polish Armed Forces, in collaboration with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, carried out the evacuation of 65 Polish citizens. Our Air Force's B-737 plane transported the compatriots from Amman. Soldiers of the Polish Military Contingent who are stationed in Jordan assisted in the operation," Kosiniak-Kamysz said.

Deputy Foreign Minister Henryka Moscicka-Dendys, who was present at the airport when the aircraft landed, said Poland may organise yet another evacuation operation in coming days.

"At this moment we still have a group of people who have signalled readiness to leave (Israel - PAP). It's several dozen people," she said.

Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said on X that a total of 251 people had already returned to Poland from Israel and Iran.

On Thursday morning, a group of 13 Polish citizens evacuated from Iran landed in Warsaw after a group of 154 people who left Israel arrived in the Polish capital the day before. The second group of evacuees got on a flight from Azerbaijan after travelling to the country's capital, Baku, by road, while the first, which included 130 Polish nationals, departed on a plane from Egypt.

Israel launched a massive aerial attack on Iran on June 13, targeting the country's nuclear and military facilities, and killing top military commanders and nuclear scientists in an effort to cripple the country's ability to develop nuclear weapons. Iran retaliated, launching a wave of drones and ballistic missiles at Israel and the exchange of blows has since continued. (PAP)

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