The Foreign Ministry confirmed on Sunday that Israeli diplomats assisted Lebanese, Syrian, and Egyptian nationals in evacuating from war-torn Ukraine, Haaretz reported.
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A ministry spokesperson said that citizens of several countries in the region, including those officially in a state of war with the Jewish state, boarded a bus on the Polish side of the border organized by Israeli diplomats.
They joined Israeli citizens fleeing the country that was invaded by Russian forces on Thursday morning.
The Foreign Ministry also said that the Israeli Embassy in Ukraine was ready to "help Israeli residents from east Jerusalem."
On Twitter, Haaretz journalist Fadi Amun shared: "A Lebanese citizen in #Ukraine with a group of Arab Israelis told me he's not getting help to escape. So an Israeli official now said in response: "We have no problem helping Lebanese or any other Arab citizens as well. He can join the Israeli bus."
"We'll help anyone who we can help to get to the border. We can't help him cross the border," Foreign Ministry spokesman Lior Haiat told Haaretz.
"We've helped a Lebanese student yesterday, and we know that there are other students from other nationalities that are joining the Israeli buses, especially from the north. We estimate that there were about 2,000 Israelis that left Ukraine in the last three days since the war started. They joined 4,500 that left earlier in the last ten days."
The flow of refugees toward Ukraine's border with Poland has increased significantly since Krakow announced the country would open its gates to refugees from Ukraine. In a statement, Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said Poland would not require refugees to present proof of identification or a negative coronavirus test.
Long lines stretching for miles were seen over the weekend following the Ukrainian government's decision requiring men aged 18 to 60 to remain in the country to fight the Russian offensive.
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Isreael's Ambassador to Ukraine Michael Brodsky warned a humanitarian crisis was forming at the border crossings. The Israeli Embassy, which had recently relocated to Lviv from Kiev in an effort to avoid the fighting, has since left the country for Poland. Embassy officials have tried to ease the passage of Israeli citizens through border crossing but without much success.
Brodsky said, "Israelis who held off on leaving Ukraine until the outbreak of war are also stuck in the mass refugee lines, and it's impossible to pull them out without causing an outburst of rage from others waiting in line."
He described the atmosphere there as "terrible."
"People who were on the road for two to three days now find themselves waiting nervously for many hours in the cold. There is desperation and fury there. They're starting to think about the Red Cross setting up encampments for refugees to make the wait easier for them, to allow them to rest and receive food and drinks," he said.
Brodsky emphasized, "The Foreign Ministry staff's only contribution is the issue of travel documents on-site. There are a lot of Israelis whose passports expired or left them at home when they fled. We are issuing them immediate forms they can use to cross the border. Most of our effort is now focused on the Polish side. There will be a lot of Israelis who arrive here and don't know what to do. We will assist them in their organization here.
"There are direct flights from Krakow and Warsaw, but they are limited. These flights are also full, and we need to take care of rescue flights. There are also people who don't have money. Many of them have many complaints toward Israel. They don't like being asked why they didn't leave earlier. I have a lot to say about that, but I keep it to myself. Just a week ago, they claimed we were fomenting panic, and now there's no way to extricate people from the big cities. But people are in serious situations, and we need to take care of them, increase the number of flights. With all the anger toward the Israelis who are stuck in Ukraine, we are the only country at the border, even if we are limited in what we can do."
i24NEWS contributed to this report.
