On Monday 9 October, just after 5am, a government Boeing 737 landed at Warsaw’s Okęcie airport with 120 Poles evacuated from Israel. After 8 o’clock, two Hercules military transport planes landed with another group of over 120 Poles who were taken from Tel Aviv airport.

On Sunday 8 October, due to the Palestinian Hamas attack on Israel, the National Security Bureau (BBN) announced that President Andrzej Duda had decided to use the Polish Military Contingent to evacuate Polish citizens from Israel.

According to a statement of BBN on the X portal, the contingent of up to 200 soldiers together with B-737, C-130 and C-295 aircraft will be used between 8 and 15 October 2023.

“Operation NEON has been launched to evacuate Poles from Israel. Our transport aviation and special forces have experience in such operations: the evacuation of Poles from Wuhan in 2020, two years ago soldiers were involved in the evacuation of the population from Taliban-occupied Kabul”, recalled the General Command of the Armed Forces.

On the night of 8-9 October, the Deputy Foreign Minister announced that the evacuation of Polish citizens from Israel was underway.

“The first plane is about to take off. Passengers are now boarding two more aircraft and will be safely transported to Poland. All Polish citizens staying at the airport today have found a place on the planes. There will be further flights on Monday – and possibly in the following days. As needed and possible”, wrote the deputy head of Polish diplomacy on the X portal.

On Saturday, 7 October, Hamas unexpectedly launched a massive attack on Israel early in the morning, firing thousands of rockets at the centre of the country. The Palestinians also hit military facilities near the Gaza border. At least 700 people were killed and more than 2,000 wounded. At least 370 people were killed and 2,200 wounded in Israeli retaliatory attacks.

Adrian Andrzejewski