Status: 12.10.2023, 13:00 PM
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Two Lufthansa special planes with German nationals from Israel are expected at Frankfurt Airport today. © Boris Roessler/dpa
372 German nationals are currently being brought to Berlin from Israel. The first special flight is scheduled to land in Frankfurt. A ferry to Cyprus is also organized.
Berlin - Lufthansa has begun bringing Germans to Germany from Israel, which has been attacked by the Islamist Hamas.
A first special flight took off from Tel Aviv with destination Frankfurt, according to the Federal Foreign Office in Berlin. There are 372 German nationals on board. Further flights on behalf of the German Foreign Ministry were to follow in the course of the afternoon and on Friday.
Germans who have registered on the Federal Foreign Office's precautionary list for crisis information were able to register for the flights. Lufthansa had promised to offer up to four flights each from Tel Aviv on Thursday and Friday. Two each were to go to Frankfurt and Munich. Departure times were scheduled for 13:30 p.m., 14:30 p.m., 16:00 p.m. and 17:00 p.m. (local time) on both days. The flights were expected to have a total capacity of about 1000 people per day.
Ferry to Cyprus organized
The German Foreign Ministry said on Thursday that after some airlines had suspended flights, the Foreign Office had ensured that special Lufthansa flights to Israel were now flying again. At the same time, it was emphasized: "We are continuing to work on ways to leave the country - by plane, by bus, by ship."
On Platform X (formerly Twitter), the Foreign Office announced that a ferry to Cyprus had also been organized for Thursday afternoon. German nationals had been informed about this via the so-called Elefand system - the ministry's crisis preparedness list.
According to a so-called compatriot's letter from the German embassy in Israel, a fee of 300 euros per person is due for participation in the special flights. The money is to be collected when booking via a Lufthansa hotline on behalf of the German Foreign Ministry. According to dpa information, Lufthansa charges 550 euros per person, 250 euros is paid by the state. Dpa