A Defense plane landed at the military air base in Eindhoven on Wednesday evening, carrying the first group of Dutch people stranded in Israel. On board were 199 compatriots who had been trapped since Hamas attacked Israel and heavy shelling ensued.
The Defense aircraft landed at the air base at ten past ten. The group of 199 repatriated Dutch people consisted of men, women and children. Among them were also 28 students from 4VWO and their teachers from Rotterdam and Gouda.
The flight left Eindhoven about twelve hours earlier to pick up the stranded Dutch people. Due to the shelling between the Israeli army and Hamas, hardly any scheduled flights have flown to Israel since Saturday. That is why the Ministers of Defense and Foreign Affairs have decided to use the air force to bring back the Dutch.
Missile attacks
Picking up the stranded Dutch people turned out to be not without risk. Just before the defense aircraft arrived in Israel, the capital Tel Aviv was shelled. The Royal Air Force plane therefore circled above the nearby Ben Gurion Airport for some time.
The rockets are said to have been fired by Hamas. People at Israel’s national airport were told to lie on the ground for two minutes to be safe. The military flight from the Netherlands ultimately departed from Tel Aviv hours later than planned.
An Airbus A330 from the Multinational Multirole Tanker Transport (MRTT) Unit, which is stationed at Eindhoven air base, was used for the military flight. The aircraft can accommodate 267 passengers and 45 tons of cargo. The flight took four hours.
Second flight
On Thursday, a Defense aircraft will fly again to Tel Aviv to pick up a second group of Dutch people. This flight was initially planned to be operated by KLM, but Israeli airspace is too dangerous for commercial flights. That is why Defense is flying to pick up the last Dutch people.
The repatriation flight departed from Eindhoven Airport.