Air Force flies out German from Israel

Conflicts

Air Force flies out German from Israel

In the middle of the war, the Bundeswehr flies out Germans from Israel for the first time. The machines are on the way back to Germany.

A week after the war between Israel and Iran, the Air Force has flown out several dozen German citizens from Israel. Two Airbus A400M machines with 64 people on board were currently on the way from Tel Aviv to Germany, the Federal Ministry of Defense and the Federal Foreign Office announced in the evening. Because of the war, airspace in both countries is actually closed to air traffic. The “Spiegel” had previously reported.

It is the first time in the current conflict that Germans are flown out by the Bundeswehr – previously there were two charter flights, which, however, not in Israel but in Jordan. Longer bus or car trips were necessary for the trip there, which those affected had to organize themselves.

More than 4,000 Germans were recently registered on the German crisis of the Elefand crisis list, which indicate that they are in Israel. In Iran, this number amounts to more than 1,000 registrations. Germans there had advised the Federal Foreign Office to travel through land to the neighboring countries of Armenia and Türkiye.

Due to the current situation in the Middle East, the group of German citizens had been flown out of Israel as part of a “diplomatic collection”, the federal government said. “The flights were carried out at short notice in close coordination with the Israeli authorities and primarily aimed at families with children and other vulnerable people.” In a message to German citizens in the country, it was said that the Israeli authorities had “given a special permit” at short notice.

According to the “Spiegel” report, the two machines are said to have flew from Wunstorf near Hannover in the morning and ended up with a special permit in Tel Aviv in the late afternoon. Shortly afterwards the military machines started again. The Federal Foreign Office and the Federal Ministry of Defense provided no information in their communications and the possible landing port.

In the past two days, German and close family members had already been flown out with two special flights from the Jordan capital Amman: an aircraft arrived in Berlin on Thursday. There was a flight to Frankfurt on Wednesday. A total of 345 people were on these two flights. It was charter flights, the Air Force was not involved. On Saturday there should be a special flight from Jordan.

Defense Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD) thanked the soldiers. “It is relied on our Bundeswehr. After only a short war, our Air Force crews were on site. They carried out their mission in the crisis region highly professional.” Foreign Minister Johann WadePhul (CDU) said: “My big thanks go to the comrades of the Bundeswehr and our representation on site for their courageous commitment today, with which further Germans could be supported in the departure from Middle East.”