A charter flight to evacuate Taiwanese is scheduled to depart from Tel Aviv, Israel, today and arrive in Italy later in the day, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday.
Following a thorough assessment, the ministry directed the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Tel Aviv to arrange an evacuation flight from Ben Gurion International Airport to Fiumicino International Airport in Rome, the ministry said in a news release.
Due to rapidly changing circumstances, the ministry said it is urging Taiwanese in Israel to use the flight for a timely departure.
Photo:AFP
The ministry encouraged local Taiwanese who have not registered for the flight to promptly contact the representative office in Tel Aviv by calling 0544-275-204.
If there are spare seats, people with a humanitarian focus, embassy personnel and nationals from countries friendly to Taiwan might also be considered, the statement said.
Since Hamas militants attacked Israel on Oct. 7, the ministry and the representative office in Israel have been assisting Taiwanese to leave the country by air and land, the release said.
It had helped 157 Taiwanese depart Israel ahead of today’s flight, it said, adding that the office remains in close contact with Taiwanese in Israel, ready to provide assistance.
According to a UN news release on Wednesday, authorities in Israel have confirmed that 1,300 people have been killed and more than 4,200 have been injured.
More than 3,000 people have been killed in Gaza, with more than 12,500 injured and hundreds unaccounted for, the UN said.
CIVILIAN SIGHTING: Fishers from Penghu County took a photograph of a Chinese guided-missile destroyer near the median line of the Taiwan Strait China sent 77 military aircraft around Taiwan over a two-day period ending yesterday morning, an uptick in its activity over the past few weeks. Forty-one Chinese military aircraft were detected in the vicinity of Taiwan in the 24-hour period that ended at 6am yesterday, with 23 crossing the median line of the Taiwan Strait and nine crossing its extension, entering the country’s northern, southwestern and eastern air defense identification zones (ADIZs), flight routes released yesterday by the Ministry of National Defense showed. Of the nine aircraft that crossed the median line’s extension, were seven fighter jets and two drones that flew around
ESCALATING TENSIONS: The US called for restraint and meaningful dialogue after Beijing threatened Taiwanese independence advocates with the death sentence The US on Monday condemned China’s “escalatory and destabilizing language and actions” toward Taiwan after Beijing last week announced new guidelines to punish supporters of Taiwanese independence. Asked about the guidelines, which included the death sentence for “diehard” independence advocates, US Department of State spokesman Matthew Miller said: “We strongly condemn the escalatory and destabilizing language and actions from PRC [People’s Republic of China] officials.” “We continue to urge restraint and no unilateral change to the status quo,” he said at the press briefing. The US urges China to “engage in meaningful dialogue with Taiwan,” Miller said, adding that “threats and legal
UNDER THE RADAR: Two US deputy assistant state secretaries visited Taiwan and met with foreign diplomats to discuss how to boost the nation’s international participation US officials who visited Taiwan earlier this week met with foreign representatives and told them that UN Resolution 2758 does not involve Taiwan nor should it be conflated with China’s “one China” principle, sources said yesterday. UN Resolution 2758 recognized the People’s Republic of China as the sole legitimate government of China in 1971. Beijing has been misrepresenting it to exclude Taiwan from the international organization and its affiliates. A representative to Taiwan, requesting anonymity, quoted the US officials as saying during a meeting that as long as it is not specified in UN Resolution 2758, “everything is feasible” with regard to
‘SEPARATIST’ CRACKDOWN: Beijing’s actions would only sow discord on both sides of the Taiwan Strait and damage exchanges, the Mainland Affairs Council said China has no jurisdiction over Taiwan, and its so-called laws and norms have no binding force on Taiwanese, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday as it called on Taiwanese “not to be threatened and intimidated” by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The council issued the remarks after China earlier in the day threatened to impose the death penalty in extreme cases of what it called “diehard Taiwanese independence separatists.” China’s state-run Xinhua news agency yesterday said the Chinese government unveiled guidelines that say its courts, prosecutors, public and state security bodies should “severely punish Taiwanese independence diehards for splitting the country