The Lithuanian government’s National Crisis Management Centre (NKVC) convened on Monday to decide how to bring back a group of pilgrims from Israel, which is under attack by the terrorist group Hamas. The state has promised to reimburse their travel expenses.
According to Inga Černiuk, Chancellor of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), five Lithuanians managed to leave the country on Sunday – three via Cyprus and two via Istanbul.
“The most difficult situation remains with the group of pilgrims, as this group is older. We pay special attention to them. Two diplomats went yesterday, met the group, talked to them about their needs,” Černiuk told LRT RADIO on Monday.
“We are working through all possible channels to put a group of this size on a plane, but they do not agree to be split up, they would like to come back together, which complicates their situation,” she added.
The consular registration of the Lithuanian Embassy in Israel lists around 7,000 Lithuanian citizens living in Israel. According to the Travel Safely app and other sources, around 460 Lithuanian citizens are currently visiting Israel.
State doesn’t care?
Rolandas Bičkauskas, a priest from Jieznas, who bought a pilgrimage to Israel from the travel agency Keliauk su Idėja, was supposed to return home on Sunday, but his plans were altered by Hamas attacks.
The group of four dozen people he is part of spent a week in Israel. They had already made it to the airport but their Wizz Air flight from Vilnius did not arrive. Since they could not find a place to stay in Tel Aviv, they chose a hotel in Bethlehem.
The priest says that the travel agency is taking care of the stranded pilgrims – it paid for their rooms and meals and is looking for a way to bring them back to Lithuania. At the same time, Bičkauskas says, the state cares much less about its citizens.
“We would like them to care more about their own people. There is a lack of that. We are left with ‘somehow’,” the priest told BNS.
Even Ukraine, which is at war, is looking for ways to get its citizens out of Israel, he said.
“The problem here is that we cannot solve the problem ourselves. There are a lot of people stranded. It’s impossible to leave on your own. It is not easy for 41 people to get tickets on one plane,” said Bičkauskas.
He stressed that the majority of the group are elderly, and it is “impossible to let them go one by one”.
It was later announced that the group of pilgrims was registered for the flight from Tel Aviv Airport organised by the Avia Solutions Group. The state promised to compensate the group’s travel expenses.
The pilgrims crossed a checkpoint in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on Monday afternoon and entered Israel’s territory, Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis confirmed.
“The group of pilgrims has crossed the checkpoint from the West Bank to the Israeli side,” he told reporters at an online news conference from Oman.
According to the NKVC, nearly 500 Lithuanian tourists are currently in Israel, but only the group of 41 pilgrims need the state's help to return to Lithuania after Hamas launched attacks on Israel on Saturday.
In the wake of the Hamas attacks on Israel, the Foreign Ministry recommends that Lithuanian citizens assess the necessity of travelling to Israel and Palestine at this time.
According to the ministry, the situation is particularly tense on the border with Gaza, in Jerusalem and the West Bank, as well as in the Golan Heights in the north of Israel and on the border with Lebanon, in the Jenin, Nablus, and Hebron regions of Palestine.
The Foreign Ministry also warns that a number of airlines have already cancelled flights to and from Israel, resulting in limited connections with the country.
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