Canadian evacuation flights will be arriving in Tel Aviv by end of week: Joly
Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly says flights will begin to help Canadians depart Tel Aviv, Israel, by the end of the week with the help of the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF).
These flights will head to Athens, Greece, Joly said. Air Canada is partnering with the government to fly Canadians, their families and permanent residents back to Canada from Athens.
Efforts are being made to coordinate exits for Canadians and permanent residents who are unable to get to Tel Aviv. Joly encouraged people in the region to register with Global Affairs Canada to get timely updates.
Joly said that this is a rare course of action, especially as commercial flights are still available out of Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv. However, many calls about cancelled and delayed flights caused Canada to decide on assistance.
“Because there were so many cancellations and also flights that were just indefinitely delayed and people were not getting a real answer whether they would be rebooked, it created a big backlog,” Joly said.
Chief of the Defence Staff Gen. Wayne Eyre says the first of two CC-150 Airbuses is expected to touch down in Athens around midday Wednesday. From there, the CAF and Global Affairs staff will run a series of logistic exercises before beginning shuttle flights between Athens and Tel Aviv.
Joly remarked that this is the second assisted departure Canada has had to arrange in six months, following the evacuation in Sudan at the end of April. Both she and Eyre say they expect this rare course of action to becoming more common.
“There’s going to be more in the future as the world security situation continues to deteriorate,” Eyre said.
Joly reiterated Canada’s condemnation of Hamas’ coordinated attacks on Saturday, which
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