New Delhi, June 24 (IANS) The Indian Air Force (IAF) on Tuesday brought back 286 Indian nationals, who were residing in Israel, from Sharm-El-Sheikh, Egypt, bringing the total number of citizens coming home from Israel to 594.

Union Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs L. Murugan welcomed the Indian nationals upon their arrival in New Delhi.

This is the second IAF flight bringing back the Indians from Israel. Earlier in the day, an IAF flight carrying 165 Indians had arrived in the National Capital.

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) took to X and posted, “268 Indian nationals who returned in the third flight from Israel were received by MoS L. Murugan. The IAF C-17 flight from Sharm-El-Sheikh, Egypt, landed in Delhi at 1100 hrs on June 24. 594 Indians have returned so far from Israel as part of Operation Sindhu.”

The IAF joined in the operations with its C-17 aircraft to evacuate the Indian nationals and the citizens of friendly nations, including Nepal and Sri Lanka, from war-hit Israel and bring them back home to safety.

Earlier in the day, before the IAF aircraft landed in India, the MEA announced that the Israel leg of Operation Sindhu started on Monday, June 23, via Jordan, marking its first successful repatriation flight, with 161 citizens landing in New Delhi from Amman on Tuesday morning.

“We are closely monitoring the situation and are committed to providing all possible and necessary assistance to our citizens in Iran and Israel. Under Operation Sindhu, all the nationals are arriving safely,” the MoS added.

Meanwhile, a similar evacuation process continued in Iran, and so far, according to the MEA, 2295 Indian nationals have been brought back home.

The Government of India has launched Operation Sindhu, a strategic evacuation initiative to repatriate Indian nationals stranded in both countries.

— IANS

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