“Operation NEON is over, soldiers of the Polish Army have evacuated 1504 Polish citizens and people from other countries from Israel”, announced the General Command of the Armed Forces’ General Headquarters on Saturday.

“Operation NEON – job done! Polish Army soldiers evacuated 1504 Polish citizens and people from other countries from Israel. Dear passengers, we are glad you are safe! We thank the crews of the transport ships for their efforts and perseverance! We remain on standby”, informs the General Command of the Armed Forces on Twitter.

The post was accompanied by a video showing pictures of people with packages getting on or off military transport planes.

Since Sunday, the Polish military had been involved in the evacuation of Polish citizens who remained in Hamas-attacked Israel. The State was attacked on 7 October this year by Hamas militias. Some 1,300 Israelis were killed in the attack – the highest number since the 1973 war against the Syrian-Egyptian coalition.

As a result of the attack and the Israel Defence Forces’ efforts to fight Hamas, air traffic over Israel was severely restricted – flights were halted by LOT Polish Airlines. This created a problem for up to 2,000 Polish citizens who were stranded in Israel, as estimated by Polish diplomatic services. As a result, the Polish authorities decided to launch an evacuation with the participation of the Polish Air Force. The operation was given the code name ‘Neon’.

On Tuesday, a so-called ‘air bridge’ was established connecting Tel Aviv with Warsaw via a Greek airbase near the town of Chania in Crete. Polish military aircraft – two smaller C-295 Casa transport aircraft and one larger C-130 Hercules – regularly flew between Tel Aviv and Chania airport, bringing Polish citizens to Greece. In Chania, the Poles changed to civilian LOT Polish Airlines planes, which took them to Warsaw.

Arkadiusz Słomczyński