الجمعة، أكتوبر 13 أكتوبر 2023
The airline Swiss is not bringing any more Swiss nationals back home from Israel on special flights for the time being after a final flight on Friday. It has cancelled two evacuation flights planned for Saturday.
The reason for the decision is security concerns. The Israeli government’s ultimatum to Hamas will end on Saturday morning, the airline announced on Friday afternoon. From then on, a ground offensive by Israel in the Gaza Strip and a further escalation of violence could be expected. It was therefore not justifiable to continue the flights for the time being.
The decision was made with a heavy heart, Oliver Buchhofer, Head of Operations of the airline, was quoted as saying in the communiqué. But the safety of the passengers and crew had top priority.
With this step, Swiss also wants to avoid having to cancel the flights on Saturday at short notice. In that case, passengers would be in danger of being stranded at Tel Aviv airport and would be exposed to even greater risks.
The decision does not affect the fourth special flight, which is scheduled to land in Zurich on Friday evening. Swiss had already flown more than 200 people back to Switzerland on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.
Swiss had already suspended regular connections between Zurich and Tel Aviv on Saturday last week. m Thursday, it announced that it would extend the suspension of flights until at least 22 October.
©كيستون/إسدا
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