Operation Ajay: 1200 people, including 18 Nepal citizens, flown to India from war-hit Israel, says MEA

As many as 1,200 Indians have been evacuated from war-hit Israel under Operation Ajay, Arindam Bagchi, spokesperson of Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said Thursday.

Operation Ajay was launched on October 11 to facilitate the return from Israel of those Indians who wished to come back home as a series of brazen attacks on Israeli towns by Hamas terrorists.

In a media briefing in New Delhi Thursday, Bagchi said: “1200 Indians have come back in five flights under operation Ajay, including 18 Nepali nationals.”

#WATCH | Delhi: On operation Ajay, MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi says, “1200 Indians have come back in five flights under operation Ajay, including 18 Nepali nationals…” pic.twitter.com/rC9Kh8zpvp

— ANI (@ANI) October 19, 2023

The first batch of Indians were brought back from Israel in a special flight on Friday (October 13).

After the announcement of Operation Ajay was made by External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar last week, the Indian embassy in Israel said it has e-mailed the first lot of registered Indian citizens for the special flight on Thursday (October 12).

The fifth flight that operated under Operation Ajay with 286 passengers, including 18 Nepalese citizens, returned in New Delhi on Tuesday (October 17).

Minister of State (MoS) for External Affairs V Muraleedharan Tuesday said if required, more flights will be operated on the basis of the upcoming situation.

"As of new, 5 flights have come and if required we will operate more flights on the basis of the situation that emerges. During the last, almost 4-5 days, we have flown aircraft from Israel to India," Muraleedharan said.

The minister had also informed that with conflict erupted in Israel, the Indian Embassy had issued an advisory, requesting the Indian citizens there to be cautious and also to register their names in the Indian Embassy.

The Indian Embassy is taking the call on who all have to travel to India based on the requests of the people and their ground situation there," he added.

Last week, four chartered flights from Tel Aviv came with a total of 906 passengers, including children.

Meanwhile, at a media briefing last week, the MEA spokesperson had said as per estimates, around 18,000 Indians were residing in Israel.

With inputs from agencies