Fleeing Brits from Israel land safely in Cyprus as passengers charged £300 to escape warzone
14 October 2023, 11:56 | Updated: 14 October 2023, 12:04
A UK Government charter flight has landed in Cyprus carrying fleeing Brits from Israel - after passengers were charged £300 for a seat aboard the rescue plane.
Listen to this article
Loading audio...
A Royal Air Force (RAF) chartered Airbus A400M ferried two tranches of Brits and family members from Tel Aviv to Cyprus on Friday night and early Saturday morning, according to FlightRadar24.
A Foreign Office (FCDO) statement said: "A UK Government charter flight has now left Israel (October, 13), with further flights expected to leave in the coming days while commercial options are limited."
Read More: Israel kills key Hamas commander in airstrike as it launches first ground missions in Gaza
The successful flights comes after aborted attempts to transport refugees in flights to Gatwick and West Sussex airport - which were cancelled due to the developing situations in Gaza and Israel.
One flight was cancelled due to Titan Airways being unable to arrange insurance for the crossing.
A spokeswoman for the FCDO said earlier: "This is a fluid situation and we are currently working to ensure the flight can proceed as soon as possible."
Government emails organising the successful flights confirmed that seats on the evacuation flight cost £300 to "reflects the costs of operating the flight".
Israel has ordered some one million people to flee, including the entire population of Gaza City, despite warnings from the UN and aid groups that such an exodus would cause untold human suffering, with hospital patients and others unable to relocate.
Families in cars, trucks and donkey carts packed with their possessions crowded a main road heading southwards from Gaza City as Israeli air strikes continued to hammer the besieged territory. Hamas' media office said war planes struck cars fleeing south, killing more than 70 people.
The Israeli military said its troops conducted temporary raids into Gaza to battle militants and hunted for traces of some 150 people - including men, women and children - abducted in the shocking assault on southern Israel by Hamas on October 7.
The evacuation order is expected to precipitate an imminent full ground invasion of the strip in the next days.
