Israel airlifted 204 people — mostly Israeli nationals, but some individuals who qualify for citizenship — the Prime Minister’s Office and Foreign Ministry announced on Thursday.
According to the announcement, 174 individuals in Gondar and another 30 from Bahir Dar, both in northern Ethiopia were instructed to reach meeting points where they were taken by bus to the airfields of those two cities and flown to the safety of Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital.
A civil war in northern Ethiopia’s has been raging since 2020. The Israelis were trapped in the Amhara region as fighting escalated between the Ethiopian army and the Fano militia escalated. Israel had recently issued an advisory against traveling in that region.
Among the trapped individuals were workers for the Jewish Agency, a quasi-governmental agency which facilitates immigration, as well as number of Israelis visiting the region, and Ethiopian Jews eligible to immigrate under Israel’s Law of Return for Jews.
The Foreign Ministry set up a situation room in Jerusalem to monitor the evacuation.
“The State of Israel takes care of its citizens, whoever they are,” said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“In the last few days, citizens of Israel and Aliyah [immigration] have entered from Ethiopia into distress in the battle zones. I ordered them to be taken out of there. I want to thank the National Security Headquarters, the people of the Prime Minister’s Office and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the people of the agency – for a quick, quiet and above all successful operation.”
Netanyahu added that the 204 will be brought to Israel, but did not specify when.
“We will receive them here with warmth and welcome,” he said.
Around 165,000 Jews from Ethiopia and their descendants live in Israel.
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