163 Koreans safely evacuated from Israel via military aircraft

A military aircraft safely evacuated 163 Koreans, 51 Japanese, and 6 Singaporeans from Tel Aviv due to escalating tensions in Israel.

Koreans that were evacuated from Israel walks down the stairs from the military aircrraft KC-330 at the Seoul Air Base in Gyeonggi on Saturday. The passengers also included 51 Japanese and 6 Singaporeans. [JOINT PRESS CORPS]

The 163 Koreans that were on board the military aircraft traveling from Tel Aviv safely landed on the Seoul Air Base around 10:45 p.m. on Saturday.

The passengers also included 51 Japanese and six Singaporeans.

According to the Korean government, the military aircraft KC-330, also known as Cygnus, was deployed on Friday to Tel Aviv to evacuate Koreans as tensions within Israel have been escalating.

The passengers boarded the plane on Saturday near midnight, local time.

Among the Koreans that boarded the plane, 81 were long-term residents while 82 were on short-term visits including pilgrimages.

According to the Korean Foreign Ministry, Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa and Japanese Ambassador to Israel Koichi Mizushima thanked the Korean government for evacuating its citizens.

The Korean government previously evacuated 192 Koreans out of the region on Wednesday on a local commercial flight.

Most of the passengers in the first group were Koreans visiting Israel on sightseeing tours to holy sites.

However, the Korean government resorted to a military aircraft as combat between Israeli forces and the militant members of Hamas in the Palestinian controlled Gaza became imminent.

Israel for the last couple of days has been warning residents in Gaza to leave the battle zone as it prepares an offense whose purpose is to seize the region.

“With an impending military operation and commercial airlines including Korean Air to Tel Aviv being suspended or canceled, the government decided to deploy the military aircraft,” a government official told reporters on Friday. “We needed resources in securing the safe return of our people.”

The government official said while the priority was the safe return of Koreans, it was also able to make room for people of different nationalities as there were available seats.

The KC-330 has 230 seats.

According to the Foreign Ministry, there are around 450 Koreans remaining in the region with 440 being long-term residents.

The Korean government official said the majority of the foreign nationals that boarded the military aircraft were Japanese because it contacted the embassies of countries that were neighboring Korea.

“There have been numerous cases in which mutual cooperation had been made with Japan including the Operation Promise in Sudan,” the government official said.

In April after an armed conflict broke out within Sudan, the Korean government deployed the same military aircraft to pull out 28 Koreans.

Among those evacuated were several Japanese.

In 2020 the Japanese government helped a five-year-old Korean girl suffering from leukemia return to Korea when all flights were suspended after India locked down its borders due to the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Korean Foreign Ministry has confirmed the safety of the remaining individuals in the region and has stated its willingness to provide assistance, including air flights, for those who wish to leave Israel.

The military aircraft KC-330 has played a crucial role in evacuating people from dangerous conflict zones.

The military aircraft, which has been in service since 2013, has been deployed in key evacuation operations including extracting nearly 300 Koreans from Iraq in July 2020 due to the spread of Covid-19 as well as nearly 400 Afghans in 2021 after the Taliban took control of the country.

BY LEE HO-JEONG [lee.hojeong@joongang.co.kr]