Operation Ajay: Air India Flight Brings Indians Stranded in Israel Back Home
An Air India flight carrying around 200 people from Tel Aviv has arrived in the national capital early morning on Friday.
Watch: Passengers on the first flight which carried 212 Indian nationals from Israel chant Vande Matram and Bharat Mata Ki Jai after landing at Delhi airport#IndiansInIsrael #IsraelPalestineCrisis#Israel pic.twitter.com/pWAJSF9FOJ
— Deccan Chronicle (@DeccanChronicle) October 13, 2023
The flight, AI 1140, which has been chartered under Operation Ajay, left for Israel on Thursday.
India launched Operation Ajay to facilitate the return of those Indians who wish to come back home as a series of brazen attacks on Israeli towns by Hamas militants over the weekend has triggered fresh tensions in the region.
Sources said that Air India might be operating more chartered flights to bring back people from Israel, depending on the requirement.
Earlier in the day, Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said, "The first charter flight will reach Tel Aviv later tonight to pick up Indian citizens and is likely to return to India tomorrow morning."
He said around 18,000 Indians are currently residing in Israel while about a dozen odd people are in the West Bank and three to four in Gaza.
