- Tuesday, April 22, 2025
Indian minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar was seen at the airport in New Delhi to receive the Indians returning home.
By: Shubham Ghosh
INDIA began evacuating its nationals stranded in violence-rocked Israel on Friday (13) morning when a charter flight brought back the first batch to New Delhi under ‘Operation Ajay’ which was launched on Wednesday (11) with an announcement by external affairs minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar.
The flight, which carried 212 passengers including an infant, took off on Thursday (12) night from Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport. The Indians were chosen on a ‘first come first serve’ basis.
Indian minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar was seen at the airport in New Delhi to receive the Indians returning home, a video shared by the Asian News International showed.
“…Our government will never leave any Indian behind. Our government, our Prime Minister is determined to protect them, bring them back home safely. We are grateful to EAM Dr S Jaishankar, the team at the External Affairs Ministry, the flight crew of this Air India flight for making this possible, for bringing our children back home safely and soundly and back home to their loved ones…” he told the news outlet.
#WATCH | Operation Ajay: First flight carrying 212 Indian nationals from Israel, lands in Delhi pic.twitter.com/iwT9ugIREP
— ANI (@ANI) October 13, 2023
#WATCH | Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar says, "…Our government will never leave any Indian behind. Our government, our Prime Minister is determined to protect them, bring them back home safely. We are grateful to EAM Dr S Jaishankar, the team at the External Affairs… https://t.co/XPUDlnv3Lf pic.twitter.com/kZuaKmIYSY
— ANI (@ANI) October 13, 2023
India’s ministry of external affairs also tweeted about the return of the Indians, saying, “Welcome to the homeland!”
Welcome to the homeland!
1st #OperationAjay flight carrying 212 citizens touches down in New Delhi. pic.twitter.com/FOQK2tvPrR
— Arindam Bagchi (@MEAIndia) October 13, 2023
“We are thankful to India… Most of the students were a little bit panicked. Suddenly we saw some notification and the links for every Indian citizen through the embassy of India which boosted our morale. We felt like the embassy of India is connected with us which was a kind of relief to us. And then we got all the arrangements,” Shubham Kumar, a student in Israel, told the Press Trust of India.
It was reported that there is still a long queue of Indians, including students, at the airport in Tel Aviv waiting to return home.
#OperationAjay gets underway.
212 citizens onboard the flight are enroute New Delhi. pic.twitter.com/fGSAYiXbBA
— Dr. S. Jaishankar (@DrSJaishankar) October 12, 2023
On Thursday night, Jaishankar shared pictures of the first repatriation of the Indian citizens on X saying, “Operation Ajay gets underway. 212 citizens onboard the flight are enroute New Delhi.”
Israel is currently locked in a fierce battle with Palestinian militant group Hamas and several thousands have been killed on either side. Air India and other airlines suspended all their commercial flights to and from Israel after the conflict started on October 7 with a coordinated attack by Hamas.
“Launching #OperationAjay to facilitate the return from Israel of our citizens who wish to return. Special charter flights and other arrangements being put in place Fully committed to the safety and well-being of our nationals abroad,” Jaishankar had announced on X as the Narendra Modi government stepped in to rescue its nationals.
Notably, there are around 18,000 Indians in Israel including students, professionals, and traders.
The Indian government has advised Indians in Israel to register their names with the local embassy to avail flights home.
