BERLIN (dpa-AFX) - A special Lufthansa flight is on its way to Israel to bring German citizens to Germany as part of a campaign organized by the German Foreign Ministry. The flight from Frankfurt is in the air, scheduled to land in Tel Aviv around 11:15 a.m. German time, the German Foreign Ministry said Thursday. After some airlines had suspended flights, the Foreign Office had ensured that special Lufthansa flights to Israel were now flying again after all, it added. The Foreign Office is bearing almost half of the costs.

At the same time, the Foreign Ministry stressed: "We are continuing to work on departure options - by plane, by bus, by ship." On Thursday and Friday, up to four special Lufthansa flights each were to fly German citizens and their relatives from Israel to Germany. Two flights each were to go to Munich and two to Frankfurt. Departure times were to be at 1:30 p.m., 2:30 p.m., 4 p.m. and 5 p.m. (local time). Accordingly, the flights are expected to have a total capacity of about 1,000 people per day./bk/DP/stk