TOKYO: An aircraft of Japan’s Air Self-Defense Force carrying 46 evacuees from Israel, including Japanese, arrived at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport on Friday night.

This was the second evacuation of Japanese nationals from Israel using an SDF aircraft since the clash between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas began in early October. The total number of evacuees transported by the SDF came to 129, including foreign nationals.

The ASDF’s KC-767 aerial refueling and transport aircraft carried 20 Japanese nationals, their two family members with foreign nationality, 15 South Koreans, four Vietnamese, one Taiwanese and four family members of such foreigners. In preparation for evacuations, three SDF planes had been on standby in Jordan, which neighbors Israel.

With Israeli forces stepping up attacks on the Gaza Strip, two ASDF C-2 transport planes will remain on standby in Jordan to prepare for further evacuations. As direct flights between Israel and Japan have been suspended and commercial flights from Israel to neighboring countries have been decreasing, the Japanese Foreign Ministry has called for early departures.

In the first evacuation using an SDF plane, 83 people, mainly Japanese and South Korean nationals, left Israel on Oct. 19.

JIJI Press