Operation Ajay: Two Flights Bring 471 Indians from Israel

New Delhi: Two flights carrying a total 471 Indian nationals under “Operation Ajay” arrived in New Delhi from Israel on Sunday. Gen. V.K. Singh (Retd), the minister of state for road transport and highways, and MoS housing Kaushal Kishore received the passengers from the third and fourth evacuation flights at Delhi airport. The third flight carried 197 Indians and the fourth had 274 on board. So far, a total of 918 Indian nationals have been flown out of Israel, of the 18,000 living there.

The special flights are part of the operation launched on October 12 to facilitate the return of those Indian nationals who wish to return home following the attacks on Israeli towns by Hamas militants from Gaza on October 7. The first charter flight from Israel carried 212 people on Thursday. The second batch of 235 Indian nationals was flown back late on Friday.

The Indian embassy in Tel Aviv posted on X: “As part of Operation Ajay, Indian nationals still in Israel and wishing to travel back to India are urgently requested to complete the attached travel form.”

The embassy also issued guidelines that “travel slots will be allocated on a ‘first come, first served’ basis in Operation Ajay”, and that “in the event of a no-show or refusal to travel after confirmation and slotting, your name will be moved to the back of the queue”.

“The embassy has emailed the next lot of registered Indian citizens for two special flights today. Messages to other registered people will follow for subsequent flights,” the Indian embassy in Israel wrote on X.

“The embassy has been working round the clock to facilitate all our citizens in Israel who wish to leave. We have reached out to students, caregivers and business people. Some of them are actually working with us as volunteers. We urge everyone to remain calm,” said India’s ambassador Sanjeev Singla.