'Operation Ajay' continues as sixth flight carrying Indians departs from Tel Aviv
Oct 22, 2023
Tel Aviv [Israel], October 22 : As 'Operation Ajay' continues, the sixth flight carrying Indian nationals has departed from Tel Aviv for Delhi.
Confirming the same, the Indian Embassy in Israel posted on social media platform X, "The sixth flight has taken off from Tel Aviv to Delhi. Embassy wishes everyone on board a safe journey."
The pictures posted by the Indian embassy showed people carrying the Indian tricolour as they expressed happiness over evacuation from Israel during its ongoing war with Hamas.
"#OperationAjay update Flight #6 departs from Tel Aviv," the External Affairs Minister, S Jaishankar posted on X.
Notably, Operation Ajay is an ongoing operation conducted by the Indian Armed Forces to evacuate Indian citizens from Israel during the 2023 Israel-Hamas war.
The fifth flight carrying 286 Indian nationals including 18 citizens of Nepal arrived in New Delhi late on Tuesday night.
Upon arrival, they were received by the Union Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting and Fisheries, Animal Husbandry & Dairying, L Murugan.
"Wherever Indians are stranded, our priority is to bring them back. We have successfully conducted Operation Ganga and Operation Kaveri now under Operation Ajay we are bringing people back from Israel. This is the fifth flight, and we have already brought 1180 people back home. We are the first country to start the evacuation, and we are also bringing people belonging to our neighbour (Nepal) countries...," the Minister said.
Expressing gratitude to PM Modi's government, Vishal, an Indian national who returned from Israel told ANI, "I am coming from Haifa, Israel. We had to follow the safety protocols given by the university. The Indian government has helped us a lot, we are thankful to the embassy..."
Whereas, another Indian national, Ramesh said, "We have just returned from Israel. The facilities provided by the Indian Embassy were very good. We got a lot of help from the Indian Embassy in Israel..."
The fourth flight from Israel under 'Operation Ajay' carrying 274 Indian passengers landed in the national capital on Sunday.
Union Minister of State General (Retd) VK Singh received the Indian passengers at the airport.
He interacted with them and also gave tricolours to every Indian passenger.
MoS for Road Transport and Highways, VK Singh informed that more flights will be carried out to evacuate the Indian citizens amid the situation in Israel.
The Indian nationals applauded the operation and said that there was support from the Indian embassy and the evacuation process was nice and quick. 'Operation Ajay' was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to bring back around 18,000 Indians in Israel. Registration of Indians began on Thursday.
The Indian embassy in Israel is providing assistance to Indian companies and has set up a helpline for Indian citizens in need of assistance.
