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India is bringing back 286 more passengers including 18 Nepalese citizens from war-torn Israel under ‘Operation Ajay’, external affairs minister S Jaishankar said on Tuesday.

Nepal’s ambassador to Israel Kanta Rizal told news agency PTI that some of the 18 Nepalese citizens were staying in difficult zones while others wanted to go back.

“We sent 254 Nepalese citizens on the Nepal Airlines on October 12 and may look to arrange more flights to take them out,” she said.

ALSO READ: What is Operation Ajay? How Indians stranded in Israel will be brought back

It is the fifth flight operated under ‘Operation Ajay’, that was launched by India on October 11 to facilitate the return of Indian nationals from Israel, which is in the midst of a war with Palestinian militant group Hamas.

On Tuesday, minister of state (MoS) for external affairs V Muraleedharan said if required, more flights will be operated on the basis of the upcoming situation.

“As of new, 5 flights have come and if required we will operate more flights on the basis of the situation that emerges. During the last, almost 4-5 days, we have flown aircraft from Israel to India,” the minister was quoted by ANI as saying.

“Conflict erupted in Israel, the Indian Embassy had issued an advisory, requesting the Indian citizens there to be cautious and also to register their names in the Indian Embassy…,” Muraleedharan added.

“The Indian Embassy is taking the call on who all have to travel to India based on the requests of the people and their ground situation there,” he said.

Last week, four chartered flights from Tel Aviv came with a total of 906 passengers, including children.

At least 2,778 people have been killed and 9,700 wounded in Gaza, according to the Health Ministry there. More than 1,400 Israelis have been killed, the vast majority civilians massacred in Hamas’ October 7 attack.

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