Wroński said that the people who returned from Lebanon had been in contact with the Polish embassy earlier and asked for help in leaving due to their difficult situation, e.g. health-related issues. He emphasised that it has been a humanitarian transport carried out by the Polish Army, and a group of several countries cooperates in such actions.
On Friday evening, information about the landing of the plane from Beirut also appeared on Poland's Foreign Affairs Ministry and Defence Ministry profiles. "The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is monitoring the situation in Lebanon, and the Polish government is prepared for various scenarios" - both ministries announced.
In a separate entry, the Foreign Affairs Ministry announced that a plane brought Polish aid for Lebanon - "medical supplies, including life-saving ones". The aid will go to the Lebanese Ministry of Health and will be distributed among Lebanese hospitals - the statement concluded.
The situation in the Middle East is the most tense in months and raises fears of a regional war. On Tuesday, Iran fired a salvo of around 200 ballistic missiles at Israel. This was a retaliation for Israel's earlier attack on Lebanon - which resulted in deaths of the leaders of Hezbollah, Hamas and a senior commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, but also numerous civilian casualties, as Israel's heavy strikes hit residential areas and non-military targets.
While most of Iran's missiles heading for Israel were shot down, the Jewish state immediately announced its will to retaliate, and Iran threatened to repeat and expand its attacks in case of meeting such a military response.
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Source: PAP