Well: Hercules is supposed to evacuate Austrians from Israel

2023-10-10 06:57:00

The Austrian Army’s aircraft are scheduled to make shuttle flights to Israel from Cyprus, the media reported on Tuesday morning. There are currently around 200 Austrians in the crisis area waiting to leave Israel.

In Linz-Hörsching, a Hercules with two crews, mechanics, an armed security element and psychological supervisors is currently being prepared for take-off. She is scheduled to fly to Cyprus starting tomorrow, Wednesday, and from there shuttle Austrians out of Tel Aviv. From Cyprus we then continue with scheduled flights.

Until recently, the Chancellery said that leaving Israel was also possible via commercial means – the borders were open.

Terrorism condemned “in the strongest possible terms”.

Chancellor Karl Nehammer (ÖVP) condemned terrorism “in the strongest possible terms” during his working visit to the Turkish capital Ankara. After the attack on Israel by the Islamist Hamas, Austria is doing everything possible to ensure that citizens who want to leave the country can do so. The people missing in Israel include Austrian dual citizens, but there is currently no confirmation of this from Israel, said the Chancellor.

The Foreign Ministry announced early on Tuesday that three Austrian-Israeli dual citizens who had been staying independently in southern Israel were missing. The aim is to get the hostages freed from Hamas, and the terrorist organization should also be “influenced,” said Nehammer.

The attack on Israel will also be a topic at the meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the afternoon, as Turkey is “an important and militarily strong country in the region.” The aim is de-escalation to avoid a “wildfire”. When it comes to EU accession, Nehmammer Ankara does not want to make “empty promises”. Other topics of the working visit would be migration, Turkey’s visa policy and the war in Ukraine.