The meeting was called by President Andrzej Duda and took place at his National Security Bureau (BBN) in Warsaw on Tuesday morning, public broadcaster Polish Radio’s IAR news agency reported.
Participants included Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, Deputy Prime Minister Jarosław Kaczyński, Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau and Defence Minister Mariusz Błaszczak, according to officials.
Afterwards, Jacek Siewiera, who heads the BBN, told reporters that 670 Poles had already been evacuated from war-torn Israel.
He added that “the evacuation operation is taking place on a continuous basis” and that “at least another 670 Polish citizens” still had to be flown out to safety.
Siewiera said that the evacuation, overseen by Polish diplomats, was being carried out by the Polish army using military aircraft.
After Polish citizens have been flown out of Israel, Poland will also help other countries which have asked for assistance in evacuating their citizens, the official added.
Poland’s foreign ministry has made available two helplines for Polish citizens after the Hamas attack in Israel, one in Poland at + 48 22 523 88 80 and another in Israel at + 972 372 53 111, as well as a designated email address: ewakuacja@msz.gov.pl, state news agency PAP reported.
On Tuesday morning, Poland’s top diplomat Zbigniew Rau said that the evacuation of Polish citizens from Israel was proceeding “very smoothly,” in part thanks to experience gained during the evacuation of Poles from the Afghan capital Kabul in 2021, the PAP news agency reported.
Speaking in an interview with Polish Radio, Rau also said that Poland was willing to help with the evacuation of citizens from other countries, such as Lithuania and Croatia, whose governments had asked for assistance.
Poland’s top diplomat remarked that the Hamas attack on Israel “must have required months of planning” and support from neighbouring countries “that benefit from the destabilisation of the Israeli state.”
Rau added: “In our part of the world, obviously our first supposition is Russia.”
Israel said on Tuesday morning that the border with Gaza was secure, three days after the Hamas attack, which has killed at least 900 people so far, British broadcaster BBC reported.
Israel also said it was continuing to bomb the Gaza Strip, after striking 200 targets overnight into Tuesday.
More than 700 people have been killed in the Israeli air strikes, according to the Palestinian authorities, the BBC reported.
(pm/gs)
Source: IAR, PAP, BBN, BBC