Status: 12.10.2023, 17:33 PM
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Two Lufthansa special planes with German nationals from Israel are expected at Frankfurt Airport today. © Boris Roessler/dpa
After days of waiting, the first Germans and their relatives fly back home from Tel Aviv in an operation organized by the Federal Foreign Office. But there is also criticism.
Berlin - Lufthansa has begun bringing Germans to Germany from Israel, which has been attacked by the Islamist Hamas. With the first three of four special flights planned for Thursday, more than 660 German citizens and their family members were able to leave the country, the Foreign Office said. Flights from Tel Aviv were to fly directly to Frankfurt and Munich. Further flights would follow today in the course of the afternoon and tomorrow, Friday.
A first special flight flew to Frankfurt in the afternoon with 372 German nationals and family members. In the meantime, criticism of the organisation of the action by the Foreign Office was voiced from the Union.
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.
The German Foreign Ministry said that after some airlines had stopped 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."
Federal Foreign Office organises departure by ferry
On Platform X (formerly Twitter), the Foreign Office announced that a ferry to Cyprus had 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.
Union politician Hardt: Hotline permanently occupied - "Unworthy chaos"
The foreign policy spokesman of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group in the Bundestag, Jürgen Hardt (CDU), criticized the organization of the special flights. The departure of Germans continues to make slow progress. "The undignified chaos surrounding the departure of the Germans has now lasted long enough," Hardt told the German Press Agency. It is time for Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) "to act and make the process a top priority. If necessary, military capacities must now be used to bring the Germans home."
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Baerbock had "tried to outsource the problem of leaving the country to Lufthansa with as little effort as possible. The result is ongoing chaos," Hardt complained. Lufthansa's hotline for the few outbound flights is constantly busy, and people sometimes have telephone bills in the four-digit range because of hours of mobile phone calls from Israel.
Regarding the fact that the departure must be paid in advance with a credit card number given by telephone, the CDU politician said: "It could hardly be more impractical, especially for school classes, children and old people." In addition, there is apparently no prioritization of people for the flights, although the Germans have specially entered themselves in lists of the Foreign Office at the location. "However, the first-come, first-served principle suits business people much more than families with children, who cannot wait in the hotline continuously and at all times," said Hardt.
Cornelia Möhring, a member of the Left Party in the Bundestag, criticized that eight flights were far from enough to fly out all those who wanted to leave the country. The German government must do everything possible "to fly people with German citizenship out of the war zone as quickly as possible." Dpa