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SWEDEN AND ISRAEL

Military plane ready to evacuate Swedes from Israel and Gaza

The Swedish Armed Forces will help the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to get Swedes out of Israel and Palestine.

Published: 15 October 2023 16:28 CEST
Military plane ready to evacuate Swedes from Israel and Gaza
A flight information board at Ben Gurion International Airport near Tel Aviv, Israel. Photo: Xinhua/Chen Junqing/TT.

Transport planes with personnel are now being placed on the Greek island of Rhodes to quickly pick up Swedes who want to leave the conflict area.

As a result of the uncertain developments in the region, the Swedish Embassy in Tel Aviv and the Embassy in Amman, Jordan, in consultation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, have requested support from the Swedish Armed Forces to transport “Swedes and others” from the region if necessary.

READ ALSO: How to return to Sweden if you’re in Israel or Palestine

“The uncertain and rapidly changing situation means that we are now further increasing our preparedness and flexibility,” Foreign Minister Tobias Billström said in a written statement.

Lifted from Såtenäs

The Swedish Armed Forces’ Hercules aircraft took off from Såtenäs airport on Sunday to be kept on standby in Rhodes. The hope is that the planes will be able to pick up Swedes from Ben Gurion airport in Israel and from Amman airport in Jordan if necessary.

“The trips will be carried out if deemed necessary,” said Billström.

It is currently difficult to get out of the region as commercial air traffic has been limited since the Hamas attack on Israel last weekend. Any evacuation requires Swedes who want to leave the area to get to airports in Israel and Jordan.

These are mainly Swedes in Israel and the West Bank. Gaza is currently sealed off. Evacuated Swedes will be flown to Cyprus, where they can then take regular flights to Sweden.

“The active and good cooperation between all parties means that we can now ensure continued good preparedness and create the scope we need to offer support to Swedes in the region at short notice in a situation of increasing uncertainty,” Billström said.

UD has already carried out two assisted flights with chartered planes for Swedes from Tel Aviv to Arlanda with a total of about 270 people.

Assisted repatriation and evacuation trips offered by the Ministry are always at cost price for the traveller, the foreign ministry pointed out in a press release. You must also be able to identify yourself.

The ministry estimated earlier this week that around 4,000 people with links to Sweden are in Israel and around 800 in the Palestinian territories, of which 400 are in Gaza and the same number in the West Bank.

Sign up to the Swedish list

The foreign ministry has also advised Swedes in Israel and Palestine to sign up for the Swedish list, if they haven’t already done so. They will then be contacted with more information about evacuation flights.

The Swedish list is a list where Swedes travelling abroad can notify the foreign ministry of their travel plans, and it can also be used by Swedes already in Israel or Palestine. It appears from the website that anyone with a personal number in Sweden can sign up.

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CRIME

Sweden teen found guilty of taking gun to Israeli embassy

A 15-year-old boy has been found guilty of possession of a semi-automatic weapon while heading to the Israeli embassy in Stockholm in a taxi.

Published: 28 June 2024 07:10 CEST
Sweden teen found guilty of taking gun to Israeli embassy

The conviction came less than a month after Sweden’s intelligence agency accused Iran of recruiting gang members to attack Israeli interests in the Scandinavian country.

The boy was arrested on May 16th when police stopped a taxi in the Tyresö suburb south of Stockholm, en route to the Israeli embassy in the capital. He was carrying the gun in his jacket.

The following night, a 14-year-old boy was arrested after a shooting near the Israeli embassy. That investigation is still under way.

The 15-year-old, who was sentenced to 11 months of juvenile supervision, told the Nacka district court he had been ordered to pick up an item in Tyresö for delivery, according to the verdict obtained by AFP.

He said he thought he would collect drugs and only discovered it would be a gun on the way to pick up the item.

He said he found out he was going to the Israeli embassy when he got in the taxi, which a woman had ordered for him.

The taxi driver confirmed that a woman, whose identity has not been established, gave the driver the embassy address.

The teen told the court he felt tricked but still went ahead with the assignment.

Prosecutors presented evidence from the boy’s smartphone showing that he had looked up the route to the embassy, and the court ruled the youth “knew that the trip was going to the embassy even if he was unable to give the taxi driver an address.”

The fact that the weapon was discovered en route to the embassy meant “the weapon typically could be feared to be used criminally,” the court said.

However, it emphasised that there was “no investigation in the case about what was actually planned to happen” that night. It was not known why police stopped the taxi.

Sweden’s intelligence agency, Säpo, on May 30th accused Iran of recruiting gang members in Sweden, some of them children, as proxies to commit “acts of violence against other states, groups or people in Sweden that it considers a threat.”

It cited in particular “Israeli and Jewish interests, targets and operations in Sweden”.

On January 31st, police found a live grenade in the grounds of the Israeli compound.

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