Chartered flight to evacuate Britons from Israel has left the country with more expected to depart in coming days, Government says
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A chartered flight to evacuate vulnerable Britons from Israel has left the country with more flights expected to depart in the coming days, the Foreign Office has said.
The FCDO did not confirm where the flight was due to land, but did say it has ‘now left Israel, with further flights expected to leave in the coming days while commercial options are limited.’
But according to flight tracker tool FlightRadar24, a Royal Air Force A400M transport plane left Tel Aviv and arrived in Larnaca in Cyprus late on Friday evening.
It comes as Britons, including celebrity jewellery designer Olivia Grace, trapped in Israel have told of their anger and fear after an official evacuation flight promised by the government failed to appear.
Despite paying £300 per seat and being summoned to Ben Gurion airport for a mercy flight home to London on Friday night, around 180 citizens found themselves still stranded in a country preparing for war.
Amid chaotic scenes, families with young children and people in wheelchairs were among those who say they were abandoned by consular officials. They were offered no food or water and told to leave the airport and find their own accommodation by the UK crisis team which had apparently been left in the dark by Whitehall.
Celebrity jewellery designer Olivia Grace, 50, (pictured) from London, was among those booked onto the non-existent flight. Ms Grace, who has spent more than £5,000 on commercial airline tickets in her bid to get home, said she ‘felt abandoned by my own country’
Despite paying £300 per seat and being summoned to Ben Gurion airport for a mercy flight home to London on Friday night, around 180 citizens found themselves still stranded in a country preparing for war.
Members of the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community arrive at London Luton Airport on Thursday
Ms Grace, 50, from London, was among those booked on the non-existent flight. The diamond specialist, who has spent more than £5,000 on commercial airline tickets in her bid to get home, said she ‘felt abandoned by my own country’ and has since criticised the UK Government for how it has handled evacuation efforts.
Ms Grace, who created Penny Lancaster’s engagement ring and made wedding bands for the model and her rock star husband Rod Stewart, was on holiday visiting one of her daughters in Israel when Hamas launched its terror attack last Saturday.
Since then she has purchased tickets on British Airways, Whizz Air and Easyjet, only for the commercial airlines to suspend flights for safety reasons.
What airlines in the UK have said about flights to and from Israel
British Airways: ‘Safety is always our highest priority and following the latest assessment of the situation we’re suspending our flights to and from Tel Aviv up to and including Wednesday, October 18. If you are due to travel with us we will be in contact with you directly, providing you options including a full refund or rebooking with another airline. Our teams will continue to monitor the situation in the region closely.’
Virgin Atlantic: ‘Due to the ongoing situation in Israel, some of our flights to and from Tel Aviv may face delays or cancellations. Based on the latest information, we have taken the decision to pause flying to and from Tel Aviv for the next 72 hours [from October 12]. The safety and security of our customers and our people are our number one priority and our flying programme to Israel remains under constant review. We would advise anyone booked to travel to check their flight status on the website before travelling to the airport.’
easyJet: ‘Due to the evolving situation in Israel, we have paused our flight operations to and from Tel Aviv until October 19. We will be contacting customers who are due to travel to and from Tel Aviv on these dates, by email and SMS with the details provided at the time of booking and check in. Any easyJet flight-only customers whose flights have been cancelled, will be able to request a voucher for the full value of their flight, a refund or transfer their flights free of charge for future travel.’
Wizz Air: ‘Attention all passengers travelling to/from Israel. Due to the escalation of the conflict in Israel, Wizz Air cancels all of its Israel flights for October 8-13. Affected passengers are notified via SMS/email. Further updates regarding flights to/from Israel beyond October 13 will be issued in due course. If you are to travel on Israel flights in the next days please proactively check Flight Info for the latest updates on your departure.’
When she received confirmation of her registration for a British government evacuation flight due out of Tel Aviv she wept with relief.
The mother of two – who has also designed for TV star Alesha Dixon, Mission Impossible actor Simon Pegg, Hollywood veteran Goldie Hawn and made Tess Daly’s jewellery for the Strictly Come Dancing final – got a call from the Foreign Office at 6pm on Friday night telling her to go to the airport as fast as she could.
‘There were two British consular crisis people there when I arrived about 7pm. They led us through the initial security, told us to check in at 8.30pm for the flight at 11.45pm,’ she told MailOnline yesterday.
‘There were people with babies, people with sick children, people in wheelchairs, a lot of embassy staff and their families, everybody waiting gratefully. Then there was this announcement that there was no British rescue mission.
‘A plane had been coming in from Latvia to repatriate us but it hadn’t even taken off. It was chaos, there were people there with union flags on their jackets and polo shirts but they had any clue what the government was doing.
‘All around us people from other countries were being taken out. We were next to a queue of Canadian nationals whose evacuation was orderly and efficient. They had three planes, we had none. I just felt as if there was nobody there for us in our time of need. I was on my own and I felt very vulnerable.
‘We were told to go back to wherever we had come from. I was able to get into a hotel in Tel Aviv, the 65 Hotel Rothschild, which was being run by a skeleton staff of volunteers, and is full of people taking refuge from the conflict in the south. The hotel was doing its best to open its arms to everyone – if I hadn’t found a place there I’d have been out on the street.
‘I couldn’t believe this was happening. It was all over the news, on the BBC, that the evacuation was starting. Why take us to the airport and make us pay £300 if there’s no flight. There’d been no doubt in my mind that it would go ahead. I felt elation, I was at the airport, for the first time in days I could breathe. It’s very very frightening here, when the sirens go off you have a minute to get to a shelter and there is funeral after funeral taking place around us. It feels as though it’s escalating at the most enormous speed.’
She added: ‘I just needed to get home but I felt abandoned by my own country. There was no proper communication, that was the worst part, not knowing what to do or where to go. I was in Israel visiting my daughter who was celebrating her birthday – today I feel like I’m in freefall.’
Ms Grace, whose Olivia Grace jewellery is on sale in London’s most prestigious stores including Harvey Nichols and Selfridges, is believed to have been on a mercy flight to Gatwick leaving late yesterday.
She had not been officially told of its existence but had found out via word of mouth from other British nationals trapped in Israel’s unfolding horror.
Also at the airport on Friday night were a British couple who prefer to remain anonymous but back up Ms Grace’s account of the botched evacuation attempt.
Pictured on Thursday is a provisional office for the evacuation of British citizens at Ben Gurion International Airport near Tel Aviv, Israel
Pictured: Travellers at Tel Aviv airport this afternoon as they wait for evacuation flights to UK
Travellers waiting for evacuation flights from Israel are pictured sitting on the ground at Tel Aviv airport yesterday
UK airlines, including British Airways and Virgin Atlantic, have suspended all flights between the UK and Tel Aviv due to safety concerns. However, El Al has continued to operate services. Pictured: Travellers at Tel Aviv airport waiting for evacuation flights yesterday
The retired grandparents who live in London and have a second home in Israel, were also sent emails confirming their places on the evacuation flight, after commercial carriers suspended operations.
The Foreign and Commonwealth office posted details of the 8.45pm departure online and they made their way to the airport at 4pm.
They also got as far as the check in desks before they were told the British rescue mission had been delayed until 11.45pm and then that it had failed altogether.
‘Not only was there no flight, there had never been a flight,’ they told Mail Online. ‘We kept waiting and waiting, thinking we should stay.
‘Even if the fight was going out in the early hours, we wanted to be on it, we wanted to get home to our children and grandchildren. We felt angry and anxious, in a big huddle with all the other British nationals just waiting and waiting for news.
‘If the government says evacuate and tells the world they are evacuating British citizens – then they should do it. We also now expect to be on the flight to Gatwick, we’re finally getting out of the war zone but we are deeply worried about everyone else who is yet to find a safe seat out.’
Members of the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community arrive at London Luton Airport on Thursday
Members of the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community arrive at London Luton Airport on Thursday
Members of the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community arrive at London Luton Airport on Thursday
Passengers arriving at Luton Airport from Israel yesterday described taking cover in bomb shelters and the difficulty in getting flights out of the country to the UK.
Naftali, a student, 19, said some of his friends had their evacuation flight to the UK from Israel cancelled as their ‘plane never made it to the runway’.
‘During the day the airport has been mobbed with passengers,’ he said.
Naftali, who studies in Jerusalem, was among the passengers who arrived on an El Al flight from Tel Aviv at Luton Airport yesterday. He said he had been woken up by air raid sirens and taken cover in bomb shelters since the Hamas attack on Saturday.
READ MORE: Hamas claims 70 people, mostly women and children, are killed in Israeli airstrike as they fled Gaza City
He said: ‘We were woken up for prayers in the morning on the first day by the air raid sirens.’
UK airlines, including British Airways and Virgin Atlantic, have suspended all flights between the UK and Tel Aviv due to safety concerns. However, Israel’s flag carrier El Al has continued to operate services and its morning flight was the only arrival at Luton from Tel Aviv yesterday.
El Al was the first commercial airline to equip its planes with missile defence systems to protect them against surface-to-air missiles.
Gitty Stern, another passenger who landed at Luton from Tel Aviv, said more flights should be arranged for those wanting to return from Israel to the UK.
‘I have quite a few friends and family that need to come back to the UK, but they’re still stuck with no flights back,’ she said.
Ms Stern added that she had to evacuate to a bomb shelter this week.
She said: ‘We were worried as we didn’t know what the next day would bring.’
Drora Lopata, who also landed at Luton yesterday from Israel, said she was concerned for family members and had changed her flight so that she could come to the UK sooner than originally planned.
Pictured: Israel’s Iron Dome anti-missile system intercepts rockets launched from the Gaza Strip, as seen from Ashkelon, southern Israel, yesterday
Pictured: Israeli emergency team look on damage following a rocket attack on the central city of Rehovot, Israel yesterday
Palestinian citizens inspect damage to their homes caused by Israeli airstrikes on Gaza City yesterday (pictured). Israel has sealed off Gaza and launched sustained retaliatory air strikes
Pictured: Missiles launched from the Gaza Strip toward Israel are intercepted by the Israeli Iron Dome defense missile system
Israeli forces in the Northern Command sector, reserve forces, are pictured as they deploy in in the settlements near the border with Lebanon in the north of Israel on Thursday
Two attempts by the Government to organise flights to repatriate British nationals from Israel have failed – despite the US and Australia successfully running UK-bound flights, aviation sources revealed yesterday.
A flight organised by Britain was initially planned to arrive at London Gatwick Airport this morning but that was cancelled amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict.
Another attempt by the UK to arrange a flight landing at the West Sussex airport at 5.40pm this afternoon also failed. This is despite several other flights from Israel due to land in Britain going ahead yesterday.
These include scheduled services to Heathrow and Luton airports by Israeli airline El Al, and a repatriation flight to Heathrow for Australian nationals organised by the country’s government and operated by Qantas.
It is understood that one of the reasons for the lack of flights is Titan Airways, the contracted airline, having difficulties arranging insurance.
The airline was approached for comment.
A Foreign Office spokeswoman said: ‘This is a fluid situation, and we are currently working to ensure the flight can proceed as soon as possible.’
Three flights from the southern Israeli city of Eilat operated by Czech airline Smartwings landed at Stansted Airport on Friday night – chartered by advocacy organisation Tzedek Association on behalf of the US government – carrying mainly US citizens.
Several airlines have suspended their flights between Israel and the UK, such as British Airways, Virgin Atlantic, easyJet and Wizz Air.
People walk next to a sign directing for Shelter after landing in Israel at the arrivals section of Ben Gurion International airport on Wednesday
A woman is pictured embracing a fellow traveller as they wait for evacuation flights from Tel Aviv airport yesterday
Several airlines have suspended their flights between Israel and the UK, such as British Airways, Virgin Atlantic, easyJet and Wizz Air. Pictured: Travellers waiting for evacuation flights from Tel Aviv airport yesterday
When the Foreign Office announced on Thursday that it would organise flights, it said the first one would operate that day and they will be available to ‘British nationals, including dual nationals, and dependants if travelling with a British national normally resident in the UK’.
Each ticket will cost £300, which ‘reflects the costs of operating the flight’, according to the FCDO. The children and other dependants of British diplomats will also be given seats as ‘we have a duty of care to our staff’, it added.
READ MORE Get out NOW: Israel drops flyers telling 1.1 million in Northern Gaza to flee ‘immediately’
It comes after easyJet chief executive Johan Lundgren said on Thursday that the airline hopes to resume flights to and from Israel ‘as soon as possible’ but ‘cannot say’ when it will happen.
The airline suspended its Tel Aviv operations after Hamas’s attack on Saturday. Flights have been suspended until at least October 17.
In the UK, easyJet usually serves Gatwick, Luton and Manchester airports from Israel. Mr Lundgren said the carrier will ‘continue to evaluate this on a daily basis’.
He added: ‘We are making our decisions (based) on a multiple number of sources. We are engaging with probably 10 or 12 different authorities, government authorities, security experts, alongside the expertise that we have within ourselves.
‘We are making then a weighted decision on what it would take for us to start up again.
‘We want to start up again. We believe it’s an important route to have in place. But for now, when we have weighed up all the information that we have, we have decided to continue to suspend the operation.’
Mr Lundgren said ‘a number of things’ must happen for the airline to feel ‘comfortable’ about resuming operations to and from Israel.
He added: ‘That is obviously something that we want to do as soon as possible but we cannot say now when that is.’
Mr Lundgren said the airline has not seen a reduction in demand for flights to other countries in the region, such as Egypt and Turkey.
Members of the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community arrive at London Luton Airport on Thursday
Members of the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community arrive at London Luton Airport on Thursday
Members of the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community arrive at London Luton Airport on Thursday
Members of the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community arrive at London Luton Airport on Thursday
He said: ‘I think that this is very much a specific issue locally from the demand point of view.’
On Wednesday, British Airways and Virgin Atlantic became the latest airlines to suspend flights between the UK and Israel.
British Airways flight BA165 returned to Heathrow after nearly reaching Tel Aviv before the decision was made.
There were reports Palestinian militant group Hamas fired multiple rockets towards Ben Gurion Airport.
A British Airways spokesman said: ‘Safety is always our highest priority and following the latest assessment of the situation, we’re suspending our flights to and from Tel Aviv.
‘We’re contacting customers booked to travel to or from Tel Aviv to apologise for the inconvenience and offer options including a full refund and rebooking with another airline or with British Airways at a later date.
‘We continue to monitor the situation in the region closely.’
Wizz Air, which normally connects Israel with Gatwick and Luton, has also suspended those flights. Virgin Atlantic has taken the decision to pause flying to and from Tel Aviv for the next 72 hours.
Israeli tanks move near the Gaza border as the army deploys military vehicles on Thursday
Israeli occupation aircraft launch white phosphorus bombs west of Gaza City on Wednesday
Israeli artillery fire rounds into the Gaza Strip from the border near Sderot on Thursday
A Virgin Atlantic spokesperson said: ‘As the dynamic situation evolves, we’ll keep our flying programme under constant review. Our teams will be in contact with any affected customers to discuss their options, which include rebooking to a later date or a full refund.
‘We would advise anyone booked to travel to check their flight status on the website before travelling to the airport.’
A travel industry source said the number of UK tourists in Israel is low.
Israel’s ministry of tourism said it is ‘committed to ensuring that all tourists visiting Israel are safe and informed’.
It added it is operating a ‘hotline via WhatsApp for tourists’ on +972 55 972 6931.
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