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First flight with Israelis evacuated from Amsterdam lands in Tel Aviv / Photo: © AFP
First flight with Israelis evacuated from Amsterdam lands in Tel Aviv
The first flight carrying some Israelis evacuated from Amsterdam after violent clashes following a football match there landed on Friday at Ben Gurion International Airport, the Israel Airports Authority said.
"The plane that arrived in Tel Aviv now has passengers evacuated from Amsterdam," Liza Dvir, spokeswoman for the airport authority told AFP.
National Israeli airline El Al said Friday that it was sending six planes to bring Israelis home after the unrest that followed a Europa League match between Dutch club Ajax and Israel's Maccabi Tel Aviv.
"The only flights that have landed so far today were not evacuation flights, they were regular scheduled flights," but "some evacuees" were aboard, El Al spokeswoman Shira Kesselgross told AFP.
Four evacuation flights were to land on Friday and two more on Saturday,
"All flights that will land from now on are evacuation flights," Kesselgross said. "Together with the flights from this morning, that means about 1,850 Israelis will return from Amsterdam to Tel Aviv."
El Al chairman Amikam Ben Zvi said earlier on Friday that paramedics and other medial personnel would be on board what he described as "rescue flights", referring to the flights specifically sent to evacuate Israelis from Amsterdam.
The Israeli foreign ministry said early Friday afternoon that all Israelis in Amsterdam who had been unreachable were located.
"All the Israelis who were wounded and evacuated to hospital were released," it added in a statement, attributing the information to Amsterdam police.
M.Powell--SFF
