Poles evacuated from Gaza Strip arrive safely in Warsaw

"The first Polish citizens evacuated from the Gaza Strip are now safe in Poland," the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on the X social media platform (formerly know as Twitter). "We remain relentless in our efforts and are in constant contact with the Israeli and Egyptian authorities to ensure the safe exit of all Polish citizens from the area of warfare," the MFA added.

In another post on X, the ministry stressed the successful evacuation of Polish nationals was a result of "weeks of hard work" carried out by the staff of Polish embassies in Tel Aviv, Ramallah, and Cairo as well as the MFA, the BBN (Poland's National Security Bureau), and the General Staff of the Polish Armed Forces.

"This is not the end of our efforts. The goal is to evacuate all our citizens," the MFA added.

Earlier on, the General Staff of the Polish Armed Forces had outlined the details of the evacuation mission.

"Two Polish C-130 Hercules aircraft have landed in Egypt. The task force #PKWEgipt, responsible for carrying out operation NEON-E, includes air force soldiers, special forces and military medical personnel," the General Staff said.

"I'm glad I was able to pass the good news on Saturday, but it's important to remember it was a tough conundrum involving terrorists and services," BBN chief Jacek Siewiera said on X on Monday morning, commenting on the evacuation of 18 Polish citizens out of the Gaza Strip.

"A Gordian Knot without being present on the spot. People at MFA have been doing a great job throughout," the BBN chief added.

According to Siewiera, "the launching of the evacuation process is the result of the cooperation and decisions taken at the level of Mr President (Andrzej Duda) as well as the governmental side, especially the Ministry of Foreign Affairs".