Services are in addition to Qantas flights and come amid ‘highly challenging and rapidly changing’ situation
Australia is arranging at least two charter flights to help citizens to flee Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories, on top of the two Qantas services already announced.
The Australian government described the situation in the region as “highly challenging and rapidly changing” but said on Friday there had been “no evacuation” of the Australian embassy in Tel Aviv.
Israel has begun the process of burying the victims of last weekend’s attacks by Hamas militants, with the death toll in Israel standing at 1,300 including children, while authorities have confirmed the identities of nearly 100 of the people taken hostage into Gaza.
Gaza’s health ministry said more than 1,500 Palestinians had been killed amid Israeli strikes since Saturday, including 500 children. Human Rights Watch said it had concluded Israel had used white phosphorus in military operations over the Gaza City port and two rural locations along the Israel-Lebanon border.
The Australian foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, said the government was aware of 19 Australians in Gaza. “Obviously the situation in Gaza is extremely difficult,” Wong told reporters in Adelaide.
“We are engaging with Egypt, as is the US, about seeking to establish humanitarian corridors.”
Wong and the transport minister, Catherine King, later announced that the government had “secured additional assisted-departure flights for Australians affected by the situation in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories”.
The government-supported charter service is expected to undertake at least two flights departing Ben Gurion airport for Dubai.
