Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Senator Smith. Overnight, an Australian government assisted departure flight landed in Sydney with 252 passengers onboard, including 126 Australians. A Royal Australian Air Force flight landed in Dubai from Tel Aviv, carrying 59 passengers. Subject to security conditions, we are planning an assisted departure flight from Tel Aviv to Dubai today. We strongly encourage Australians who want to leave to consider this flight and do not wait for another option. As I've said in this place this week, we have had a lot of empty seats on flights. This will be our last flight for the foreseeable future. I repeat: today's flight will be our last flight for the foreseeable future.

We continue to assist Australians who wish to leave the occupied Palestinian territories, including working to secure Australians' safe passage out of Gaza. I appreciate this is extremely difficult. We understand how dangerous the situation is, and we are working very hard with partners on this.