Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Roy Lee (李淳) on Friday defended the government’s choice to evacuate citizens from Israel, saying that the decision is left up to officials on the ground to decide based on the latest information.
Speaking to legislators during a question-and-answer session, Lee said that a flight evacuating Taiwanese from Israel is to depart at “around” 5pm on Friday Taipei time, with the exact time remaining confidential for security reasons.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday announced the flight departing from Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv with an initial stopover in Fiumicino International Airport in Rome.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
When asked by legislators the day before about the possibility of evacuating the 147 Taiwanese remaining in Israel, the ministry said there was currently no plan to do so.
Questioned about the change of heart on Friday, Lee said the decision was made by front-line diplomats.
Due to changes in the security situation in the Gaza Strip over the past three days and conversations with Taiwanese expats, the local office decided to charter an evacuation flight, he said.
Asked if the ministry was to raise its travel warning for Israel from orange to red, Lee said that most of the nation’s global peers are keeping their alerts on orange, which advises against nonessential travel.
Evacuations may be made under both orange and red alerts, he added.
Alerts for the West Bank and Gaza Strip remain at red.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday said it opposes the introduction of migrant workers from India until a mechanism is in place to prevent workers from absconding. Minister of Labor Hung Sun-han (洪申翰) on Thursday told the Legislative Yuan that the first group of migrant workers from India could be introduced as early as this year, as part of a government program. The caucus’ opposition to the policy is based on the assessment that “the risk is too high,” KMT caucus secretary-general Lin Pei-hsiang (林沛祥) said. Taiwan has a serious and long-standing problem of migrant workers absconding from their contracts, indicating that
SPACE VETERAN: Kjell N. Lindgren, who helps lead NASA’s human spaceflight missions, has been on two expeditions on the ISS and has spent 311 days in space Taiwan-born US astronaut Kjell N. Lindgren is to visit Taiwan to promote technological partnerships through one of the programs organized by the US for its 250th national anniversary. Lindgren would be in Taiwan from Tuesday to Saturday next week as part of the US Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs’ US Speaker Program, organized to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) said in a statement yesterday. Lindgren plans to engage with key leaders across the nation “to advance cutting-edge technological partnerships and inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers,”
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