South Korea’s Foreign Ministry: Military aircraft evacuate 97 people from Lebanon amid rising tensions
South Korea’s Foreign Ministry: In the midst of rising tension, a military transport plane from South Korea is taking 97 residents and their families out of Lebanon. It is scheduled to return to South Korea on Saturday afternoon, October 5, according to the foreign ministry of the nation.
On Friday morning, a KC-330 aircraft touched down in Beirut and took off in the afternoon carrying the evacuees, which included relatives from Lebanon. It said that it would land at a military airstrip south of Seoul, the capital.
Military aircraft ordered to evacuate residents
In response to the growing tension in the confrontation between Israel and Hezbollah, President Yoon Suk Yeol on Wednesday ordered the urgent deployment of military planes to evacuate the country’s residents from areas of the Middle East.
The foreign ministry said, without providing any details, that the government would take further steps to guarantee the protection of its nationals.
Yonhap news agency said that South Korean diplomats stationed in Lebanon stayed there.
Following a sharp uptick in violence between Israel and the Iranian-backed Lebanese armed organization Hezbollah, nations throughout the globe have made preparations to remove their people from Lebanon at all times.
Military aircraft will travel to Cyprus
While no nation has yet initiated a large-scale military withdrawal, several are renting airplanes. As a backup plan, Australia, for example, has scheduled hundreds of airplane tickets for its nationals to depart Lebanon, with military planes traveling to Cyprus. Although officials have asked an estimated 15,000 inhabitants of Lebanon to escape while Beirut airport is still operating, plans may also involve an evacuation by water.
Germany’s foreign ministry said on Friday that it was taking 219 more citizens out of Lebanon on Friday as part of its ongoing evacuation of non-essential employees, embassy personnel’s families, and citizens in danger of a medical emergency. It said that it would facilitate anyone attempting to go.
On Thursday, Japan sent two C-2 military transport planes to Lebanon. The aircraft are prepared to evacuate Japanese citizens. In Lebanon, there are between 40 and 50 Japanese nationals.
The government has successfully evacuated over 200 Chinese nationals, according to the official Xinhua news agency.
