The Portuguese Foreign Minister said this Monday that about 190 Portuguese have expressed their intention to leave Israel and are ready to take advantage of repatriation flights organized by the government on a Portuguese Air Force (FAP) aircraft.
João Gomes Cravinho explained in RTP statements that these repatriation flights will be operated between Tel Aviv and Cyprus (Larnaca) using a FAP C-130 aircraft.
Subsequently, a TAP flight chartered by the Portuguese State will take these citizens from Cyprus to Lisbon.
This repatriation operation was carried out by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MNE) and the Ministry of National Defense, as the MNE previously explained in a statement that initially indicated that 150 Portuguese were ready to leave Israel.
As for the existence of Portuguese or descendants of Portuguese among the dead or hostages of Hamas, which on Saturday launched an unprecedented offensive against Israel, the head of Portuguese diplomacy said he had no official confirmation.
“There is information being spread that we cannot confirm. The Israeli authorities cannot confirm it, from a Portuguese woman under such circumstances. Until we have this information, we cannot say anything further,” he stressed.
Craviño also assured that he has no information about people having difficulty contacting the embassy to access repatriation flights.
“The embassy is closed on the instructions of the Ministry of Security. Contact is carried out through the consular department for emergency situations,” he added.
Earlier, the MNE reported that “services in the consular department for emergency situations have been strengthened,” emphasizing that “contacts should only be made through these numbers – +351217929714 / +351961706472 (regular telephone calls) or by email gec@mne .pt.”
The minister also mentioned that there are 3,000 Portuguese registered in Israel and “the vast majority of them live there, have dual citizenship and have not shown interest” in traveling to Portugal.
The Islamic group Hamas launched a surprise attack into Israel on Saturday dubbed Al-Aqsa Storm, firing thousands of rockets and invading armed militias by land, sea and air.
In response to the surprise attack, Israel air-bombed several Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip in an operation dubbed Operation Iron Swords.
The armed conflict has already resulted in hundreds of deaths on both sides and thousands of injuries.