A KC-30 plane from the Brazilian Air Force will bring 240 Brazilians from Beirut (EFE/Luis Nova/File)
The first plane of the operation that the Government of Brazil will carry out to repatriate its citizens from Lebanon will leave this Wednesday for Beirut y will evacuate about 240 of the 3,000 Brazilians who have asked to be removed in the face of Israeli attacks on that country.
According to an official statement released this Tuesday, the plane is a KC-30 of the Brazilian Air Forcewhich will take off from Rio de Janeiro heading to Beirutfrom where he is expected to depart back to Brazil during the weekend.
Official sources have said that, of the 21,000 Brazilians residing in Lebanon, so far about 3,000 have asked to be repatriated following the escalation of hostilities between Israeli forces and the Shiite group Hezbollah.
“It is a partial figure,” he told the news agency EFE a spokesperson for the Foreign Ministry, and clarified that the number of repatriates could vary, especially depending on those who are able to leave Lebanon on their own.
The decision to evacuate Brazilian citizens was made this Monday by the president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silvawho determined that a operation similar to the one carried out in the Gaza Strip in the context of the current conflict.
This is an operation similar to the one carried out in the Gaza Strip within the framework of the current conflict (EFE/Luis Nova/File)
In 2006, when the last war between Israel and Hezbollah was fought, the Brazilian government, during Lula’s first of two consecutive terms, also repatriated some 3,000 Brazilians.
Brazil has strongly condemned the Israeli offensive against Lebanon and the Gaza Strip, and has repeatedly called for a cessation of hostilities to all parties to the conflict.
Israel’s military operations against Hezbollah have entered a new phasewith the advance of ground troops on southern Lebanon and heavy bombing that has even reached some areas of Beirut.
The conflict intensified this Tuesday, after the attack with hundreds of ballistic missiles launched by Iran against Israel, whose Government has already warned that this aggression “will have consequences.”
(With information from EFE)
