Australians in Israel ‘annoyed' by DFAT's ‘absolutely disgraceful' evacuation efforts and lack of communication
Australians in Israel are 'annoyed' by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) for its 'absolutely disgraceful' evacuation efforts and lack of communication.
On Thursday, DFAT said 1,200 Aussies are stranded in Israel, with 1,500 others in Iran. It said officials are 'moving quickly' when it is safe to get Australians to safety and is assessing other options for assisted departure.
On Wednesday the Australian government facilitated the movement of a group of Australians from Tel Aviv to Amman, Jordan, by bus. Another bus is planned for Thursday (local time).
'There was an opportunity to safely move a group of Australians, and we took it,' DFAT told SkyNews.com.au on Thursday.
DFAT said the security situation was 'fluid and rapidly changing' and that the bus arrangements were a 'continuation' of their evacuation efforts.
On Friday morning, Sky News contributor Sophie Elsworth told Sky News that Australians on the ground in Israel had been 'left in the dark' by DFAT with the evacuation process being 'absolutely disgracefully handled'.
'Yesterday, Australians were only given 55 minutes notice to get to the InterContinental David Hotel in central Tel Aviv, to get on a bus to leave Israel to go to the Jordanian border. At 55 minutes they were just saying it's just completely unrealistic,' Elsworth said.
'People are just rolling up at the hotel each day, they have a bus leaving the second day today at 11.30 this morning, a bus with about 40 Australians left, but they said they don't know if they're going to get a seat on the bus.
'There's been very little correspondence and they're also told today they could only take one carry-on bag.'
Elsworth said Australians were 'really annoyed' about the lack of conversation with DFAT, which added extra stress amid an already 'incredibly tense situation'.
At the time of the correspondence, Elsworth said it was 'very calm' in Tel Aviv just hours after a missile strike from Iran sent tens of thousands into bomb shelters.
Elsworth said despite the calmness, there was 'always that nervousness' as people waited for the next alert to pop up on their mobile phones.
'You're waiting to run downstairs of your hotel or to the nearest bomb shelter. There's a lot of unease, a lot of very nervous people. We've seen a lot attacks in recent days, many people injured, some killed,' she said.
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