Kathmandu, Oct. 12
The chartered aircraft of Nepal Airlines Corporation has
left Tel Aviv of Israel with 253 Nepali nationals on Thursday afternoon. The
aircraft is scheduled at the Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) at 1:30 AM
on Friday morning, informed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) of Nepal.
As per the updates till the preparation of this news,
Foreign Affairs Minister, NP Saud, will talk to the media about the recent
situation in Israel and rescue of Nepali citizens.
FM Saud has led the rescue mission and reached Tel Aviv on
Thursday afternoon where he was received Nepali Ambassador to Israel, Kanta
Rijal, Israel's Chief of Protocol and officials of the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs of Israel, informed Dipak Joshi, Chief Personal Secretary of FM Saud.
The aircraft had left the TIA on Thursday morning, halted
briefly at the Dubai Airport and at 10:46 AM flew from there for Tel Aviv. It
reached there at 1:55 PM Nepali Time and flew from there at 3:55 PM.
Nepali citizens being rescued are students who had reached Israel
under 'learn and earn' programme. They
were sent there by Tribhuvan University, Agriculture and Forestry University
and Sudurpaschim University in cooperation with the Israeli government.
Amidst the mounting pressures from the families of the Nepalis
in Israel, Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal Prachanda had asked the MoFA,
Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation, and Civil Aviation Authority
of Nepal to expedite the process to rescue Nepali students from Israel.
As a result, within a day on Wednesday, the government made
arrangements to conduct a rescue flight in coordination with the Embassy of
Nepal in Tel Aviv, Israeli government and country in transit. The government
also decided to entrust FM Saud to lead the mission.
However, according to the MoFA, it is not sure whether there
would be further rescue flights. But it assured the public that all possible
channels to ensure the safety of Nepalis in Israel and bring back those who
wished so. If they come back through any commercial flight, which are limited
to a couple of flights a day, the airfare would be borne by the government,
MoFA said in a press meet on Wednesday.
Ten Nepali students have died in an attack by the Palestine
rebel group HAMAS on Saturday, October 7 while one, Bipin Joshi, is still
missing.
The embassy has received more than 350 responses online from
the Nepali citizens in Israel and about 288 had wished to return to Nepal and
the remaining wished to be relocated from there areas.
Meanwhile, the process to bring back the mortal remains of
the deceased 10 Nepalis is under process is likely to take some time as various
protocol needed to be fulfilled apart from conducting the postmortem of the
dead bodies.
However, Foreign Minister of Israel, Eli Cohen, in telephone
conversation with FM Saud had assured Nepal of full support in early
repatriation of the mortal remains of the dead ones.
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