The first US flight evacuating American citizens from war-torn Israel landed in Greece on Friday, a State Department official confirmed.
Matthew Miller, a State Department spokesman, shared the news with X, saying that the first chartered flight had landed in Athens.
“As more US citizens leave Israel using commercial transportation, the State Department charters flights to provide additional options and capacity,” Miller wrote. “Our first flight carrying US citizens and their family members from Israel is landing in Athens.”
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People wait in the departure section at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv, Israel’s only international airport, after many flights from abroad were canceled due to attacks launched by Hamas militants. (Turgut Alp Boyraz/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images/File/Fox News)
“A big thank you to everyone involved in making this possible. Our work continues,” he added.
White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby first announced the news of the charter flights for American citizens to Israel on Thursday.
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Kirby said the US government is “acutely aware” of the limited availability of commercial flights out of Israel and US citizens who may want to leave.
“The president has asked his team to make sure we help US citizens who want to leave Israel and provide them with a safe way to do so,” he said. “So starting tomorrow, the United States government will arrange charter flights to provide transportation from Israel to European sites.”
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Coordinator for Strategic Communications at the National Security Council John Kirby speaks during the daily press briefing Thursday at the White House, Washington, DC (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
Kirby also said the US government is “exploring other options” by “land and sea.”
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“They’re still working out some of the details of that, to help US citizens and their family members who, for whatever reason, couldn’t make it. provide commercial vehicles out of the country,” Kirby added. “And I would add that we are also exploring other options to expand the capacity to do this, including exploring whether it is possible to help Americans leave by land and by sea .”
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US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, right, is welcomed by Israeli Foreign Minster Eli Cohen at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv, Israel, Thursday. (Israel Foreign Ministry / Handout/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Kirby made the announcement of the evacuation flights after saying that 27 Americans have now been confirmed dead in the Israel-Hamas warand those 14 remain unidentified.
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“Sadly, five more families have now gotten the worst possible news any family could get. And we will remain in contact with them as appropriate,” Kirby said. “Same goes for those family members of those who are unaccounted for and by unaccounted for, we mean that. We don’t know where they are. They don’t know where they are.
Greg Norman of Fox News Digital contributed to this report.