BERLIN (dpa-AFX) - Lufthansa has started bringing Germans from Israel, which is under attack by Islamist Hamas, to Germany. A first special flight took off Thursday afternoon from Tel Aviv with destination Frankfurt, according to the Foreign Office in Berlin. On board are 372 German nationals, it said. Further flights on behalf of the German Foreign Ministry were to follow in the course of the afternoon and on Friday. Meanwhile, criticism of the organization of the action is being voiced from within the Union.

Germans who had registered on the Foreign Office's precautionary list for crisis information had been able to register for the flights. Lufthansa had agreed to offer up to four flights from Tel Aviv on Thursday and Friday. Two each were to go to Frankfurt and Munich. Departure times were scheduled for 1:30 p.m., 2:30 p.m., 4 p.m. and 5 p.m. (local time) on both days. The flights were expected to have a total capacity of about 1,000 people per day.

The German Foreign Ministry said that after some airlines had suspended the flights, the Foreign Office had ensured that special Lufthansa flights to Israel would now resume after all. At the same time, it was emphasized that "we are continuing to work on departure options - by plane, by bus, by ship."

Foreign Office organizes departure by ferry

On the platform X (formerly Twitter), the Foreign Office announced that a ferry to Cyprus had been organized for Thursday afternoon. German nationals had been informed about this via the so-called Elefand system - the ministry's crisis precaution list.

According to a so-called compatriot letter from the German embassy in Israel, a fee of 300 euros per person will be charged for participation in the special flights. The money is to be collected at the time of booking via a Lufthansa hotline on behalf of the German Foreign Ministry. According to dpa information, Lufthansa will charge 550 euros per person, 250 euros will be paid by the state.

Union politician Hardt: Hotline constantly busy - "Unworthy chaos".

The foreign policy spokesman for the Union faction in the Bundestag, Jürgen Hardt (CDU), criticized the organization of the special flights. The departure of the Germans continues to make only slow progress. "The undignified chaos surrounding the departure of the Germans has now gone on long enough," Hardt told Deutsche Presse-Agentur. He added that it was time for Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) "to act and declare the process a top priority. If necessary, military capacities must now be used after all to bring the Germans home."

Baerbock had "tried to outsource the problem of the departure to Lufthansa with as little of her own effort as possible. The result is continuing chaos," Hardt criticized. The appropriate Hotline of Lufthansa for the few departure flights is constantly occupied, humans would have because of hour-long Handytelefonate from Israel partly telephone bills in clearly four digit height.

Regarding the fact that the departure must be paid in advance with a credit card number transmitted by telephone, the CDU politician said: "It could hardly be more impractical, especially for school classes, children and old people." In addition, he said, there is apparently no prioritization of people for the flights, although Germans at the location have specially registered in lists of the Foreign Office. "However, the first-come, first-served principle is much more convenient for business people than for families with children, who cannot wait in the hotline continuously and at all times," said Hardt./bk/DP/stk