Lithuania Considers Evacuating Its Citizens from Israel Using Military Aircraft
The Lithuanian government is actively exploring alternative plans to bring back its citizens from Israel who have become stranded due to the postponement of a regular flight intended for their evacuation. Vilmanthas Vitkauskas, the head of Lithuania's National Crisis Centre, revealed this during an interview with Radio LRT, as reported by the European Truth.
The originally scheduled flight for Monday evening, which Lithuanian citizens were supposed to take to return home, was rescheduled for Tuesday morning. However, even at the rescheduled time, the flight did not take off, as it was once again postponed for 12-14 hours.
Approximately 170 individuals, including a group of 41 pilgrims who found themselves stranded in Bethlehem, were planning to return to Lithuania from Israel on a flight organized by Skyllence, a subsidiary of the Avia Solutions Group.
According to Lithuania's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, around 7,000 Lithuanian citizens currently reside in Israel, with an additional 500 tourists in the country.
"We are facing overbooking, and many airlines are refusing to fly to Israel. The bigger issue is that even regular commercial flights are being canceled," noted Vitkauskas.
He also mentioned that the Lithuanian authorities are exploring the possibility of deploying military aircraft to evacuate their citizens from Israel.
"Our top priority is to return our fellow countrymen home as quickly as possible," he added.
Currently, due to the Hamas attack on Israel, several American and European airlines have suspended flights to Tel Aviv. These airlines include Lufthansa, Swiss, Wizz Air, and Ryanair. According to the AeroTelegraph publication, several flights bound for Israel have altered their routes and returned following the onset of terrorist attacks in Israel.
As a result, some countries are considering the possibility of evacuating their citizens using military aviation. For example, the Minister of Defense of Poland has made such an announcement. According to him, the Polish military is preparing a centralized operation to evacuate Polish tourists from Israel, utilizing military aircraft. Polish citizens will be transported on board Romanian airline Tarom's planes, as part of an agreement between Moldova and Romania. This allows Moldovan citizens to take advantage of priority departure rights offered by Romania's national carrier and the largest airline in the country.