NNA - Spain plans to send two military aircraft to evacuate as many as 350 citizens from Lebanon as early as Thursday, Spanish Defense Minister Margarita Robles said on Wednesday.

“The Spanish airplanes are ready, the staff are ready, as always with the professionalism of the Spanish army,” she said in an interview with Antena 3 TV station.

A group of 350 Spanish citizens present in Lebanon have asked to go to Spain, Robles said in the interview.

Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares had said earlier this week around 1,000 Spaniards were in Lebanon.

Israel was hit on Tuesday evening by rockets launched from Iran following a ground incursion of the Israeli armed forces into south Lebanon where they clashed with the Iran-backed Hezbollah group.

The operation followed intense air strikes that have devastated Hezbollah’s leadership, including longtime chief Hassan Nasrallah who was killed in Beirut last week.

Beside the 1,000 Spanish residents in Lebanon, Spain has commanded the United Nations’ Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) and deployed 650 troops along the southern Lebanese border with Israel, since 2022.

In addition, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol ordered on Wednesday military aircraft to be deployed immediately to evacuate its citizens from Israel and other parts of the Middle East amid escalating tension, his office said.

Yoon met with his national security and economic advisers over the Middle East conflict and called for a swift but measured response to any impact on the country’s energy supply, trade and supply chains, his office said.

Yoon said the safety of its citizens in the region is the top priority and all necessary measures must be taken, it said.

Earlier on Wednesday, South Korea’s foreign ministry urged its citizens in Israel and Lebanon to immediately leave by any means available.

Government data for 2023 showed there were 572 South Koreans in Israel including permanent residents and Israeli passport holders and 214 in Lebanon.--Reuters

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