Japan to send 2 military planes for possible evacuations from Middle East

Japan is sending two military planes to East Africa for a possible operation to evacuate its nationals from the Middle East amid mounting hostilities between Iran and Israel, Defense Minister Gen Nakatani said Thursday.

The two C-2 transport airplanes of the Self-Defense Forces (SDF) airplanes with about 120 crew members will fly to an SDF base in the Horn of Africa nation of Djibouti and be on standby there, Tokyo-based Kyodo News reported.

The decision was taken following a request from Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya.

The planes are likely to leave Japan on Saturday.

"The situation in the Middle East has become more strained as Israel and Iran continue tit-for-tat attacks," Nakatani said.

He stressed that the government "is still at the preparatory stage for a possible transportation" of Japanese citizens.

The ministry is seeking to confirm how many of the about 280 Japanese nationals in Iran and 1,000 in Israel want to flee the countries.

Japan is also planning to evacuate by bus around 90 nationals and their family members from Iran's capital Tehran to neighboring Azerbaijan while also offering those living in Israel the option of bus evacuation to Jordan.

Regional tensions have escalated since Friday, when Israel launched airstrikes on multiple sites across Iran, including military and nuclear facilities, prompting Tehran to launch retaliatory strikes.

Israeli authorities said at least 24 people have been killed and hundreds injured since then in Iranian missile attacks. In Iran, 585 people have been killed and more than 1,300 wounded in the Israeli assault, according to Iranian media reports.