Starting Sunday, Thai evacuees will be flown from Israel to Dubai for transit to chartered planes, which will bring them back to Thailand.
Meanwhile, the remains of eight Thai nationals killed in the Hamas attack on Israel will be flown back to Thailand on Friday morning, according to the Thai embassy in Tel Aviv.
Thai Foreign Ministry spokesperson Kanchana Patarachoke said that the flight from Tel Aviv to Dubai takes about three hours and a large capacity aircraft has been chartered for the evacuation. Aircraft chartered from Nok Air, Air Asia, Lion Air and the Royal Thai Air Force will then be used to fly about 600 evacuees back to Thailand at a rate of 2 or 3 flights a day.
The spokeswoman said 926 evacuees have already been flown back to Thailand on seven chartered flights, including those arranged by the Royal Thai Air Force. Some people chose to arrange their own passage back to Thailand.
Another 225 Thais are due back in Bangkok on two flights today (Thursday), with 145 scheduled to arrive at about 1.40pm, followed by another flight carrying 80.
Kanchana said that the number of Thais applying to be repatriated and the number actually flying back to Thailand may not match, because some may have changed their minds or have not yet arrived in the Israeli capital.
She also warned Thais planning overseas trips to check the situation at their destination, noting that protests have been reported in several countries following the attack on a hospital in Gaza, which killed more than 500 people and wounded many others.
According to the Thai embassy in Tel Aviv, the Israeli institute of forensic science has already examined and identified eight Thai victims and has granted permission for their remains to be repatriated on an El Al flight, due to leave Tel Aviv at 8am local time, arriving at Suvarnabhumi international airport at around 8.50am tomorrow.
The eight have only been publically identified as “Pongsathorn”, “Phichit”, “Chairat”, “Arnan”, “Pongphat”, “Anucha” and “Pongthep”.
In total, 30 Thai workers are reported to have been killed in the Hamas attacks. 17 others are being held captive by Hamas and 16 were injured.
