Spain begins the evacuation of the first Spaniards from Israel

Spain has joined the governments of other countries that are carrying out an evacuation of their citizens, who are unable to leave Israel on their own due to the attack committed by Hamas on October 7.. As reported by Minister Margarita Robles, 15 minutes before four in the afternoon, a first Airbus A330 left for Tel Aviv to pick up the first group of Spaniards.. The plane arrived in Tel Aviv minutes after eight in the afternoon and boarded 270 people, all of Spanish nationality..

The Embassy has reported that there are around 500 Spaniards who were passing through Israel and have asked for help to leave the country.. It is important to emphasize that the Government is currently going to evacuate those people who are in Israel for tourism or business reasons; the evacuation of residents in the country is not contemplated.

The Operations Command has worked all morning to finalize the preparations for this new operation, and at the Torrejón Air Base an Airbus A330 was ready with all the essential personnel on alert, waiting to take off as soon as they were given the order.. The staff includes a doctor and a nurse in case any of the evacuees need help. Removing the staff on board, there are 272 seats available on the plane to accommodate Spanish citizens.

At an ideal time, a direct flight between Madrid and Tel Aviv takes just over four hours, so if everything goes well the first plane will land in Israel minutes after eight in the afternoon.

Once on the ground, civilians board directly after checking their identities for security and the plane returns to the country of origin, so the first Army and Space Army aircraft will be in Madrid at dawn..

In the case of the second plane, although it was initially expected to travel tonight, it will finally not fly until early Wednesday morning on the recommendation of the Embassy..