First plane with 211 Brazilians takes off from Israel, another 5 are scheduled

The first plane with Brazilian citizens who asked the government for help left Tel Aviv, the capital of Israel, on Tuesday afternoon (10) with 211 people. The flight left Brazil on Sunday (8), from the Natal air base, and had made a stopover in Rome, Italy, until being authorized to fly to the country.

The KC-30 model plane (Airbus A330-200) landed in Tel Aviv at around 9:30 am (Brasília time), half an hour late, amid a Hamas missile alert to the Israeli capital.

According to Itamaraty, the Brazilians who boarded this flight were in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, most of them tourists who were visiting the country. They were taken to Ben-Gurion airport in five buses hired by the Brazilian government.

Images released by Itamaraty show the Israeli airport completely packed with people fleeing the war waged by Hamas against Israel. The rescue operation is coordinated with the Israeli authorities, who authorize landings and takeoffs under safe operating conditions.

The flight also departed Tel Aviv late at around 2pm (Brasília time) bound for Brasília, as confirmed by Itamaraty. It is expected to land in the federal capital at 1am on Wednesday (11).

A group of 103 Brazilians led by pastor Felippe Valadão gave up boarding the Brazilian Air Force (FAB) flight to make room for people who were in difficult situations at the airport, with no food and no money to buy a plane ticket through commercial airlines. . The religious man said that the group’s flight was confirmed by Emirates for the night.

Although Ben-Gurion Airport has not stopped operations, the airlines themselves are restricting frequencies there. This Tuesday (10), companies such as Emirates, El Al, among others, have scheduled flights.

A second rescue flight left Brazil on Monday (9) and another took off from Brasília on Tuesday afternoon (10). Itamaraty has already received requests for help with the repatriation of more than 2,700 people, including Brazilian citizens and close relatives, such as spouses and children.

Another three departures are scheduled to take place until Saturday (14), but more flights can be scheduled depending on need. The expectation is to rescue at least 900 Brazilians by the weekend on six flights.

On the other hand, the rescue of Brazilians in the Gaza Strip is still being worked out by the government with the Representative Office in Ramallah, in the West Bank. The difficulty is due to the “deterioration of security conditions in the area”, and must be done across the border with Egypt — but, as yet, there is no forecast.

“The Brazilian Embassy in Cairo, in turn, continues to be in contact with the Egyptian authorities to verify the feasibility of safe passage to Egypt for nationals interested in being removed from the Gaza Strip,” Itamaraty said in a statement.

Preliminary information indicates that 26 Brazilians requested repatriation. According to the representation in Ramallah, there are around 6 thousand citizens living in Palestine.

The war waged by Hamas against Israel has already killed around 1,800 people, including 1,000 Israelis and 830 Palestinians, according to the country’s army.