File Photo: Sharm El-Sheik International Airport terminal 2. Photo courtesy of Sharm El-Sheik Airport website.
"Poland would start evacuating its citizens from conflict-ridden Israel via Egypt and Jordan on Wednesday morning," Deputy Foreign Minister Henryka Moscicka-Dendys said in a press briefing held Tuesday in Warsaw, according to Polska Agencja Prasowa (PAP).
She added that the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs had scheduled two flights for this purpose.
Due to the closed airspace over Israel, the operation will involve a land journey to Sharm El-Sheikh in Egypt and Amman in Jordan before the flights back to Poland.
She said the charter plane from Sharm El-Sheikh is scheduled to depart on Wednesday morning, and a military aircraft from Amman will follow on Thursday.
According to Moscicka-Dendys, the flights have drawn less interest than initially anticipated. As of Tuesday, approximately 200 Poles had applied for evacuation.
Furthermore, she urged Poles currently in Iran to leave the country by land, revealing that the ministry would evacuate non-essential personnel from the embassy in Tehran, along with six Polish citizens.
Meanwhile, the French embassy in Israel informed its citizens that they can now leave Israel safely via land borders to Jordan and Egypt.
The embassy also advised French citizens to travel by bus and private cars during the day. It added that after crossing to Jordan, it is preferable to take a ferry from Aqaba to Taba to reach Sharm El-Sheikh airport.
The French embassy said the Taba crossing between Egypt and Israel operates 24 hours.
On Monday, Egypt's Ministry of Transport announced that the Arab Bridge Maritime Company continues to operate regular ferry services between Jordan and Egypt despite rising regional tensions.
On Tuesday, Czech Minister of Foreign Affairs Jan Lipavský expressed the Czech Republic's looking forward to Egypt’s assistance in evacuating Czech nationals from Israel through Egyptian territory.
Short link: