Seoul/Tokyo, Oct 5 (EFE).- South Korea and Japan have evacuated citizens from Lebanon on military flights amid Israel’s bombardment of the country.
On Saturday, a South Korean military plane transported 96 citizens back to the Asian country from Lebanon, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported on Saturday, in the first operation of this type by Seoul in the face of escalating tensions in the region.
After leaving Beirut on Friday afternoon the KC-330 transport plane landed at Seoul’s air base in Seongnam, south of the capital, at around 12.50 pm (03:50 GMT), according to the ministry.
A Lebanese citizen, a relative of a South Korean, was also on board, officials told Yonhap news agency.
The operation coincides with another by Japan in which 16 people were flown in a C-2 transport plane out of Lebanon – 11 Japanese citizens, one family member born abroad and four French citizens – to neighboring Jordan on Friday.
The Japanese Self-Defense Forces already evacuated Japanese and citizens of other Asian nationalities from Israel by military aircraft when the war with Gaza began in 2023.
Since the start of hostilities between Israeli forces and Hezbollah two weeks ago, Israel’s attacks on Lebanon have killed nearly 2,000 people, mainly in the south of the country and in the southern suburbs of Beirut, a major Hezbollah stronghold.
On Thursday, at least five people were killed and eight wounded in an Israeli airstrike on a building in central Beirut, the Lebanese Ministry of Health reported, while the Israeli military spokesman warned of more bombings in the south of the city. EFE
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