Hundreds of people from the Gaza Strip have been flown from Israel to Germany from Israel, according to an Israeli media report. Israel's Interior Minister of Mosque Arbel had traveled to the regional airport near Ramon in the Negev desert, the newspaper “Israel Hayom” wrote. The politician of the ultra-orthodox Shau party said that he came “to monitor and check the matter of the voluntary departure of the residents of the Gaza Strip”. The newspaper report said that German diplomats accompanied the passengers.
According to “Israel Hayom”, the goal of the special flight was Leipzig. Such a flight that landed in the German city in the evening was displayed on the Flightradar24 website. It was carried out by the Sundair line, a German charter flight line that usually does not fly ramon or Leipzig.
“Refurbishment of the area”
Arbel said that there have been ten such flights to other countries recently. He thanked the American President Donald Trump and noticed that the “voluntary departure” enabled “the renovation of the area”. Trump surprisingly proposed at the beginning of February to temporarily or permanently relocate all or a large part of the residents of the Gaza Strip to other countries. The Gaza Strip should be rebuilt under American supervision and then “belong” to the United States. After massive criticism, especially from the Arab world, Trump downgraded his plan to a recommendation.
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, on the other hand, took up the proposal. Since then he has been propagated by the Israeli government, whereby an alleged voluntariness of the departure is claimed. However, the Gaza Strip has been a theater of war for a year and a half. After a two -month ceasefire, the Israeli army resumed attacks in mid -March. In Israel, voices are always voices that promote the expulsion of the residents of the Gaza Strip. According to media reports, more than 100,000 of the approximately 2.3 million residents of the area have fled since the start of the war in October 2023. In addition, according to Gaza, more than 50,000 people have been killed in the war. Israel also blocks the import of relief goods.
At the end of March, Israel's Ministry of Defense set up its own authority for the “voluntary departure” from the Gaza Strip. It is intended to “prepare and enable the safe and controlled departure of the residents of the Gaza Strip to third countries”. A few days ago, the newspaper “Yedioth Ahronoth” reported that the number of exits from Gaza had increased significantly in recent weeks. This is related to the increased support from Israel. Almost 2000 people left the Kerem Schalom transition, either to Ramon Airport or further to Jordan.
The number and identity of the passengers on board the flight to Leipzig were unclear on Tuesday evening. According to information from the FAZ, it was people with German citizenship and close family members of them. The number of people is said to have been in the double -digit range. So far, however, it was not known that many Germans are still in the Gaza Strip.
The Federal Foreign Office confirmed the information of the FAZ in an entry on platform X on Tuesday evening, it was said that 19 German nationals and close family members were brought back to Germany. The Israeli authorities would like to thank you for close cooperation. The statement that Arbel had attended the voluntary departure of residents of the Gaza Strip and hundreds of people came to Germany and was commented on in the entry with “That is wrong”.
