Five more Hungarians manage to leave Israel

Amid continuing armed operations, employees of Hungary’s Tel Aviv embassy must regularly go to shelters, Szijjarto said in a ministry statement.

He said consular services nonetheless operated 24 hours a day and in Budapest consular staff have been increased so that everyone who has registered for consular protection receives it.

He dismissed reports of the embassy failing to keep in touch with citizens as “lies”, adding that there was documentary evidence to prove this.

The Turkish airline which normally operates services to Israel has cancelled its flights, while flights from Budapest of Israeli carrier El Al sometimes reach Tel Aviv and sometimes land in Larnaca and turn back to Budapest, he said.

Whenever a flight reaches Tel Aviv, consular staff at the airport try to assign Hungarian passengers to the remaining seats, which is how five people managed to leave the country the previous day, he said.

The minister said that departing Israel by air was increasingly difficult and dangerous, while departures by land were limited to four border crossings, three towards Jordan and one in the direction of Egypt, and crossing could be made only during the day.

He said that as long as Hungarian citizens were in Israel, “we will keep in constant contact with everyone”.

Szijjarto said that regrettably signs were that the situation would further escalate, and he urged the international community to do everything possible to prevent this from happening.

The minister warned of “one of the most serious humanitarian disasters in the history of mankind” in the coming period if nothing was done to prevent it.