More evacuation flights for stranded Aussies in Israel

Dominic Giannini | October 16, 2023

Australians seeking to flee Israel have been warned there may only be limited chances to leave as the government secures more flights out.

The government has now confirmed two additional flights from Tel Aviv to Dubai on Monday.

Extra flights from Dubai and London for people who have already been evacuated are also being put in place.

But the flights remained “subject to factors including the security environment,” Foreign Minister Penny Wong stressed.

Two air force flights and a chartered plane carried about 255 Australians to safety from Israel on Sunday, bringing the total number who’ve left the country to about 1200.

Some Australians were accompanied by non-citizen family members.

Senator Wong urged people to leave through any available options if they needed to.

“(This) may be our last opportunity to conduct an assisted departure flight for the foreseeable future,” she told the Senate on Monday.

“We can’t know how the security situation will unfold.”

The chartered and defence planes left on Sunday after scheduled repatriation flights were cancelled the previous day.

But seats on the plane remained empty despite all being allocated. 

The foreign affairs department continues to assist more than 1000 registered Australians and handle 39 consular cases. 

Not all those registered want to leave and some have just put their names down for information, Senator Wong said. 

Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil said it was legal for Australians to go to a foreign country and fight with that nation’s armed forces but it was unlawful to fight for a terrorist organisation such as Hamas.

“What is happening in the Middle East now is not a war between two nation states,” she told the ABC’s RN.

“It is a war between a nation state and a terrorist organisation, a terrorist organisation that has just in the most inhuman way murdered innocent men, women and children.”

Defence Minister Richard Marles backed the call for people to leave when they can, warning “it could all change at a moment’s notice”.

This includes if Israel closes its airspace as it prepares for ground invasion.

The government is working with commercial carriers to help Australians get home from Dubai after leaving Israel. 

Senator Wong is also trying to secure safe passage of citizens out of occupied Palestinian territories.

A proposed window to allow for approved foreign nationals to leave didn’t eventuate.

Senator Wong said she was in discussions with Egypt and Israel to establish a safe humanitarian corridor. 

The foreign minister called on humanitarian law to be protected as she reaffirmed Australia’s support for Israel to defend itself after the attack.

Mr Marles said he would not cast judgment about how Israel retaliated with Tel Aviv’s blockade of food, water and fuel to Gaza condemned as collective punishment against innocents by international humanitarian groups.

While it was important Israel acted within the rules of war, he believed they were doing so. 

Pro-Palestine protests continued across the weekend calling for an end to Israeli occupation of Gaza.

Senator Wong said Australians had a right to protest peacefully but condemned hate speech in any form. 

“Vile anti-Semitism and Islamophobia, which is its bedfellow, undermines some of our greatest strengths, our diversity, our tolerance, our values.”