A Lithuanian official confirmed to LRT that 14 Latvian citizens and an unspecified number of Estonian citizens were registered for an evacuation flight out of Amman Tuesday night.

The journey to the Jordanian border was expected to take between four and six hours.

The official described the presence of a Lithuanian Alenai C-27J Spartan military transport aircraft in the region as a "plan B," confirming that the evacuation flight scheduled to depart at 7 p.m. is a civilian charter.

Five Estonians booked for Lithuanian flight

Speaking to ERR's Kai Vare on Tuesday, Robert Derevski, deputy head of mission and consul at the Estonian Embassy in Tel Aviv, confirmed that five Estonian citizens should be on Tuesday night's evacuation flight out of Jordan.

He said that since the latest escalation in the region began a few days ago, a total of 14 Estonian citizens have contacted the embassy to say they want to leave Israel.

"Which — that may not sound like a lot, but considering our travel warning, which advises against traveling to Israel unless absolutely necessary, then that's actually quite a number of people we've had to deal with," he said.

The diplomat noted that the most urgent challenge in organizing evacuations is that much of the Middle East's airspace remains closed and many flights are grounded.

"Essentially, the only way out of Israel right now is by land," he explained. It's also becoming increasingly clear this conflict will not be resolved quickly.

"Some citizens have taken the initiative [to evacuate themselves]; they didn't start waiting for new guidance or air routes to reopen or any other opportunity," Derevski said. "So as of yesterday, now — a few days later — we have eight people in the country that we've been working with more actively."

On Monday, the Estonian Embassy began cooperating with partners, led by Lithuania, on evacuation arrangements.

"The Lithuanians chartered a private flight, which will be departing from Jordan at 7 p.m. tonight," the deputy head of mission said. "They had seats to offer, so we coordinated with them to get Estonians [onto that flight]. That allowed us to send off five citizens this morning who — if all goes well tonight — will hopefully fly out on Lithuania's chartered flight."

He added that one Estonian citizen is currently en route to the Taba border checkpoint into Egypt, from where they plan to fly back to Europe. Another has crossed into Jordan and plans to fly out from Amman.

Around 1,000 Estonian permanent residents

According to Derevski, the Estonian citizens seeking to evacuate are primarily short-term visitors or temporary residents — in Israel for work or to visit family. Another nearly thousand Estonian citizens, however, are permanent residents of Israel, many of whom are Estonian Jews and most of whom have dual citizenship.

"These people are really well prepared for crises, since the security situation in the region is perpetually unstable," he said. "This whole military conflict didn't just start a few days ago; it's been ongoing for nearly two years, since October 7 [2023]."

Permanent residents, he added, are typically stocked with supplies and know how to respond in emergencies.

"Although we're in contact with all [Estonian] citizens — everyone who wants to be and who has registered with the embassy — our main concern isn't so much them as the short-term visitors," the Estonian diplomat explained. "These are the people who are temporarily in the country, and may not be familiar enough with how to act here if they hear sirens, or if a blast hits the city, whether Tel Aviv or some other city."

Asked about what might come next, Derevski, who began his posting in Tel Aviv in August 2023, said one of the key lessons he's learned in his time in Israel is to stop trying to predict anything.

"If ever there was a thankless task in the world, it's trying to forecast events in the Middle East," he emphasized. "As we've seen, when we think things are getting better, they actually end up getting worse, and when things get worse, then in the future, they could actually get better."

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