Slovakia and Czech Republic receive evacuees from Israel amid conflict

Flights carrying evacuees from Israel have landed in Slovakia and the Czech Republic as the war between Iran and Israel intensifies, officials confirmed on Tuesday. These countries are among the first in Europe to bring their citizens home from the Middle East, Reuters reported.

Slovak authorities said the initial evacuation flight arrived in Bratislava late on Monday with 73 people aboard, including 25 Slovak tourists and five relatives of Slovak diplomats stationed in Tel Aviv.

Slovak Foreign Minister Juraj Blanar added that the country also helped evacuate citizens from other nations, including 15 Poles, 14 Czechs, nine Austrians, two Slovenians and one person each from Estonia, Spain and Malaysia.

He said another evacuation flight was being prepared for Tuesday, carrying Slovak, Czech, Austrian, Hungarian, Latvian and French nationals.

Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto confirmed Slovakia assisted in evacuating seven Hungarians.

Czech Defence Minister Jana Cernochova said a flight carrying 66 evacuees had landed near Prague.

Poland announced it was organising the evacuation of about 200 citizens from Israel through Jordan.