Israel says it evacuated Lebanese, Syrian and Egyptian citizens from Ukraine

Israel has helped evacuate Lebanese, Syrian and Egyptian nationals from Ukraine, according to its Foreign Ministry, reported Haaretz.

A ministry spokesperson yesterday said that citizens of several countries in the region, including those officially in a state of war with Israel had evacuated the country by boarding a bus organised by Israeli diplomats on the Polish side of the border.

The ministry added that the Israeli embassy in Kyiv is ready to “help Israeli residents from East Jerusalem”.

Haaretz journalist Fadi Amun stated on Twitter that a Lebanese citizen with a group of Arab Israelis informed him that he had no other way of fleeing the country amid escalating conflict following Russia’s invasion last week. An Israeli official, he said, allowed him to join the evacuation bus.

@HassanKaabia A spokesman of @IsraelHebrew also confirms to me "there are Lebanese, Syrian and Egyptian citizens on the Israeli bus, some of them crossed the border of #Ukraine as refugees. The embassy also help Israeli residents from East Jerusalem"

— Fadi Amun | فادي أمون | פאדי אמון (@FadiAmun) February 27, 2022

READ: Ukraine crisis raises concern in Arab world over wheat supplies

Foreign Ministry spokesman Lior Haiat was quoted by Haaretz as saying: “We’ll help anyone who we can help to get to the border. We can’t help him cross the border.”

“We’ve helped a Lebanese student yesterday, and we know that there are other students from other nationalities that are joining the Israeli buses, especially from the north. We estimate that there were about 2,000 Israelis that left Ukraine in the last three days since the war started. They joined 4,500 that left earlier in the last ten days.”

On Friday, the Times of Israel reported that around 500 Israeli citizens had evacuated the country by land, while over 4,300 Israelis flew back before Ukraine’s airspace was closed. Israel is also anticipating the arrival of around 10,000 Ukrainian Jews in the coming weeks.

The Ministry of Immigration and Absorption said: “We call on the Jews of Ukraine to immigrate to Israel – your home.”

READ: Arab countries urge citizens to contact embassies in Ukraine