WARSAW: Poland on Wednesday said it had evacuated around 160 people from Israel as that country’s conflict with Iran escalates, adding that another plane would bring home dozens more on Thursday.
Foreigners have rushed to leave Israel after it launched an unprecedented bombing campaign last Friday, targeting Iranian nuclear and military facilities and sparking retaliation from Tehran.
“The first group of Poles has just landed in Warsaw…. They arrived in Poland via Egypt. Another flight tomorrow,“ Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said on X.
Deputy Foreign Minister Henryka Moscicka-Dendys told reporters there were around 160 people, most of them Poles, on the plane, “including small children”.
“Tomorrow (Thursday) there will be another flight and that plane will fly from Amman… It will be 65 people, and this time it will only be Polish citizens,“ she added.
She said some employees of the Polish embassy in Iran would also fly home, along with a few private citizens.
Moscicka-Dendys said that group was currently on its way overland from Tehran to the border with Azerbaijan, for a flight from Baku.
Israel says its offensive is aimed at preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons — an ambition Tehran denies.
The adversaries have for years waged a shadow war through proxies and covert operations, with Israel fighting Iranian-backed groups such as Hamas since October 2023.
