Austria, Switzerland, Germany, France, Norway, Denmark and Australia announced that they intend to evacuate their citizens from Israel following the Al-Aqsa flood operation launched by the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) and the Palestinian resistance factions and the subsequent intensive Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip.

Austria plans to send a C-130-Hercules military aircraft that will begin operating on Wednesday and will make four flights between Israel and Cyprus, from where the evacuated citizens will return to Austria on regular commercial flights.

The Foreign Ministry in Vienna said there were currently 150 Austrian citizens who wanted to return from Israel following Saturday's attack.

Special unit soldiers and psychiatrists will be on board to accompany citizens on the return flight from Israel.


Trips & Request

Swiss Airlines plans to operate a second special flight from Tel Aviv on Wednesday to repatriate Swiss citizens from Israel.

Swiss Airlines said on Tuesday that the flight, which will carry only Swiss citizens, is supported by the Swiss Foreign Ministry and is due to leave Tel Aviv on Wednesday evening.

The first Swiss flight left Tel Aviv earlier on Tuesday, and there was a huge demand for the flight, all seats quickly booked.

German airline Lufthansa will organise a number of "special flights" Thursday and Friday to evacuate German nationals wishing to leave Israel, sources close to the German Foreign Ministry told AFP.

The sources pointed out that Germans wishing to leave through these flights, must register their names on the ministry's platform dedicated to emergencies.

According to the sources, "about 4500,<> German citizens" registered on Tuesday on the platform.

The flights are being operated "at the request of the Foreign Ministry" after Lufthansa suspended commercial flights to Tel Aviv until Saturday.

For its part, France announced Tuesday that Air France will organize a flight on Thursday to evacuate its citizens wishing to leave Israel.

Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna said the French carrier would organise a "special flight this Thursday" to secure the evacuation of its nationals who were unable to leave after a number of airlines suspended flights to Ben Gurion Airport.

Ben Gurion Airport on October 8 (Anatolia)

Additional flights

Norwegian also said on Wednesday it would organise an additional flight from Tel Aviv to Oslo to repatriate Norwegians and nationals from other northern European countries from Israel.

The company added that the approximate departure date for the flight, which was arranged on behalf of the State Department, is on Wednesday evening.

The Danish government said on Wednesday it would offer to evacuate its citizens and permanent residents from Israel and the Palestinian territories.

The Danish Foreign Ministry said in a statement that there were about 1200,90 Danes believed to be in Israel and <> believed to be in the Palestinian territories.

This comes as Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said today that Australia has organised two flights to repatriate its citizens from Israel.

Albanese said the first flight would depart on Friday and the second on Sunday, and would be from Ben Gurion Airport to London.

"We are evaluating all options for repatriating Australians wishing to return home as soon as possible," Albanese told a news conference.

He noted that the large number of Australians living or travelling to Israel makes it difficult to know exactly how many citizens are there.