Fiona Nimoni & Imogen James
BBC News
BBC
Max Radford with his parents
The first Britons evacuated out of Israel have landed back in the UK after a “long and intense” journey.
The RAF flight departed Ben Gurion Airport with 63 British nationals and their family members on Monday afternoon. The passengers landed at Birmingham Airport early on Tuesday morning.
One passenger said he was grateful to personnel on the ground, but was critical of the evacuation plan which has followed many other nations bringing citizens home, including the US and Portugal.
Israeli airspace was closed for 10 days – leaving thousands of Britons stranded – when the conflict started this month when Israel attacked nuclear sites in Iran, prompting Tehran to respond with missile strikes.
A second British evacuation flight took off from Tel Aviv on Tuesday afternoon, towards Cyprus, the Foreign Office confirmed.
Passenger Max Radford accompanied his elderly parents on the first British evacuation flight.
“It’s been a pretty long and intense day”, he said just moments after landing back in the UK.
Mr Radford emphasised that while he was “really thankful” to the RAF and Foreign Office staff, the evacuation plan was “shambolic every step of the way”.
He accused the UK government of seemingly “making it up as they go along”, saying that more needs to be done to get British citizens out of Israel.
“There are thousands of people – and 63 people on one flight, maybe once a day, is nowhere near enough,” he said.
Downing Street said that around 1,000 people had asked for a seat on an evacuation flight – a quarter of the 4,000 who have registered their presence in Israel or the Occupied Palestinian Territories with the Foreign Office.
On Monday, the Foreign Office said further evacuation flights would be based on demand and the security situation. Israel reopened its airspace on Monday.
British nationals still in Israel have been urged to register their presence with the UK government.
Louise Ellman
Louise Ellman said the RAF were “wonderful” to the passengers
Former Labour MP Louise Ellman, 79, was staying in Jerusalem when Israel struck Iran on 13 June, leaving her stuck.
She told the BBC she filled in the forms for the flight as soon as they
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