Washington DC, Oct 11 (EFE).- The United States currently has no plans to send evacuation flights to Israel and urges its citizens to search for the limited number of commercial flights still operating from the Middle Eastern nation amid the ongoing conflict, a state department spokesperson told EFE late on Wednesday.
The government acknowledged being aware of the “limited capacity” of the commercial flights and the high demand by US citizens who are seeking to leave Israel.
However, the spokesperson encouraged Americans to explore commercial options through third countries, due to the difficulties in securing a direct flight ticket between Israel and the US.
The authorities insisted that they were exploring “other options” to evacuate their citizens by “air, land or sea” through Israel’s neighboring countries.
The state department said that it was contact with the citizens “24/7” through telephone lines and an online form that can be filled by those seeking to get out of Israel.
Unlike other governments, Washington has so far not launched any efforts to evacuate its citizens from Israel, despite a string of cancellations on the commercial routes between the two countries.
Major operators such as Delta, United, Air Canada and American Airlines have already cancelled their flights to Tel Aviv, at least until the end of October.
Dozens of countries from Europe and the Americas, such as Germany, Spain, Denmark, France, Portugal, Canada and Mexico, have already launched official flights to evacuate their citizens from Israel.
At least 11 US citizens were killed in the Hamas attacks against Israel, while the number of people taken into Gaza by the group as hostages remains unknown, US President Joe Biden had said on Monday,
The surprise mass attack launched by Hamas from Gaza on Saturday has triggered a war that continued on Thursday with fierce exchanges of strikes, with at least 1,200 people being killed in Israel and over 2,900 being injured.
In the Gaza strip, the health ministry on Wednesday put the death toll due to Israeli bombing at 950, while at least 5,000 people have been wounded.
Apart from this, around 1,000 Palestinian militants are estimated to have died in clashes with security forces after infiltrating into Israeli territory from Gaza, according to numbers provided by Israel Defense Forces.
As per the Israeli government, more than 100 people have been kidnapped by Hamas and taken into Gaza as hostages. EFE
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