Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said that 235 Indian citizens, including two infants, arrived in New Delhi from Tel Aviv on Saturday morning.
This is the second flight to repatriate Indian citizens stranded in Israel during the continuing war.
India's foreign minister shared photos of the second repatriation of the stranded citizens on X (formerly Twitter) with the accompanying message: "Operation Ajay Flight №2 carrying 235 Indian nationals takes off from Tel Aviv."
Dr Rajkumar Ranjan Singh, Minister of State for External Affairs and Education, received the Indian contingent at Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport.
The federal government launched 'Operation Ajay' on 11 October to retrieve stranded citizens from Israel in a special chartered plane after commercial airlines suspended their operations to and from Israel after the war began on 7 October. On Friday morning, 212 Indian citizens returned to India from Israel.
The Indian government has also launched a 24/7 helpline number to monitor the situation in Israel and Palestine.
The evacuation was rendered necessary after Palestinian militant group Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel on 7 October. In response, Israel imposed a blockade of the Gaza Strip, began a large-scale bombardment, and declared war.
According to the latest media report (Saturday morning), at least 1,900 Palestinians were killed and 7,696 wounded in Israeli air attacks on Gaza. The number of people who died in Israel has reached 1,300, with 2,800 wounded. The toll is expected to rise in the next few days.