Hundreds of Australians are stuck in Tel Aviv after two emergency flights to Dubai and London were cancelled

Hundreds of anxious Australians have had to hunker down in Israel after two emergency repatriation flights to London and Dubai were cancelled on Saturday.

Hundreds of anxious Australians had to hunker down in Israel after two emergency repatriation flights to London and Dubai were cancelled on Saturday.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong said “we know this is upsetting news”, before announcing that new flights would be scheduled on ­Sunday.

Senator Wong said multiple flights were planned to depart from Tel Aviv on Sunday, “subject to ­factors including the security environment”.

“The situation in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories continues to change rapidly,” she said in a statement.

“We are also arranging flights to assist travellers with their onward journey from Dubai to Australia.

“A further update will be provided directly to registered Australians in coming hours.”

The Australian government had been planning for a repatriation flight to leave Tel Aviv for Dubai on Saturday but it was ­postponed. Also cancelled was a Qantas flight bound for London on Sunday night.

However, the British government announced that two of its charter flights had finally left Tel Aviv, bound for London, on Saturday evening. The flights had been scheduled for 24 hours earlier but had been delayed by insurance ­issues. Norway has also been having difficulties obtaining insurance for its planned flight.

It was unclear why British government flights to London had been able to leave Israel but not the Australian ones.

Senator Wong said: “Unfortunately, we have been advised that our scheduled flights will not depart today (Saturday). Tomorrow’s (Sunday’s) Qantas flight will also not go ahead.”

On Friday night the first ­repatriation flight took place, shuttling more than 200 Australians to London.

On that flight was Jo Rogers of Melbourne, with her husband and two young children. She said she was worried about her Australian friends who hadn’t yet been confirmed on a flight out of Israel.

When asked about her concerns, she said: “We do have some family there (in Israel), but it’s more our friends.

“We’ve got some other Australian friends that haven’t yet been told if they’re on a flight. So we’re worried about them. We worry about our Israeli friends that are there and their lives are there.”

She added that the decision to leave Israel was very emotional.

“We were umming and ahing, Nothing felt 100 per cent right. But when there was talk of escalation of the war, we thought, right, this is our window to make a move.

“I was overcome with emotion many times on the flight. I was so proud to be an Australian and I cried with one of the flight attendants walking off, just ‘thank you, thank you’.

“They just treated us with such kindness and compassion and so gingerly and, you know, they really just wanted to be there for us. And that was just an amazing, amazing feeling.”

Other countries have been ­organising charter flights for their citizens to leave, with Cyprus, Czech Republic, Iceland, Poland and South Korea first to swing into action and moving citizens just days after the Hamas slaughter in southern Israel which claimed the lives of more than 1300 Israelis.

ADDITIONAL REPORTING: JOANNA PANAGOPOULOS