Nigeria Evacuates 300 Citizens From Israel As War With Hamas Continues

Thousands of foreigners find themselves stuck in Israel and across the Palestinian territories, where a full-blown war has erupted since Hamas militants launched their onslaught on Saturday.

With the violence having already claimed thousands of lives on both sides, several countries have launched operations to repatriate their citizens, while others plan to do so in the coming days.

Nigeria has airlifted more than 300 of its citizens back home after they fled to Jordan from Israel, where they were on a Christian pilgrimage, the Lagos state government said.

The group was travelling from Bethlehem to Nazareth when they heard news of the attack in the south of Israel.

With the war erupting, the group and the Nigerian Christian Pilgrims’ Commission organised for them to travel by road to Jordan and then take a chartered flight to Lagos.

Also, Argentina, the Latin American country with the largest Jewish population, on Tuesday started evacuating more than 1,200 of its citizens from Israel.

Three air force flights a day will take the 1,246 Argentines who have asked to be evacuated to the Italian capital Rome, Defence Minister Jorge Taiana said.

From there, state-owned airline Aerolineas Argentinas will fly them to Buenos Aires.