First flight to evacuate Dutch from Lebanon scheduled for Friday

The first flight to evacuate Dutch people from Lebanon will happen on Friday. Defense will send a Multi Role Tanker Transport plane to Beirut airport to pick up the Dutch citizens who want to leave the country, the Ministry of Defense said. A second flight is scheduled for Saturday.

Tensions between Israel and Lebanon flared up considerably after the leader of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, was killed in an Israeli bombardment on Friday. Israel started a ground assault on Lebanon earlier this week. As a result, airlines are canceling flights to and from the country, and it is becoming increasingly difficult to leave.

Dutch citizens who want to be evacuated from Lebanon need to register with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs here. The Defense planes will pick them up at Beirut International Airport on Friday and Saturday. Any remaining seats on the planes will go to people of other nationalities awaiting evacuation “in accordance with international agreements,” the Ministry said. “This also applies to repatriation flights from other countries that may then also take Dutch citizens.”

The Ministry of Defense is also deploying more people to Cyprus in case a larger evacuation proves necessary. “In addition, we are also closely monitoring the security situation in Israel. Here, too, Defense is preparing for various scenarios for possible repatriation.”

Minister Caspar Veldkamp of Foreign Affairs announced on Tuesday that the government would evacuate Dutch people from Lebanon after opposition parties in parliament urged the government to intervene. Several other countries had already announced evacuations and the Netherlands was still only urging Dutch to leave the country while they still could.

Veldkamp denied that he was responding more slowly than other countries. "No, we are running at the same pace. Some countries started communicating earlier, externally perhaps." Veldkamp said he decided to only communicate a statement when he was certain that the evacuation flight could be carried out.