As Israel-Iran crisis escalates, countries begin evacuating citizens from warring nations

Countries around the world are taking measures to evacuate their citizens from Israel and Iran as the two nations enter the seventh day of their air war and airspace in the region remains closed.

A week of Israeli air and missile strikes against its major rival has wiped out the top echelon of Iran's military command, damaged its nuclear capabilities and killed hundreds of people, while Iranian retaliatory strikes have killed at least two dozen civilians in Israel.

BULGARIA Bulgaria has evacuated 17 of its diplomats and their families from Iran to Azerbaijan and is planning to repatriate them by land and air, the Bulgarian government said on Thursday. It said an administration at the Bulgarian embassy in Tehran was moving temporarily to Baku.

Expats, including diplomats from different nationalities, who were stranded in West Bank and Israel, wait as they hold belongings while being evacuated through the King Hussein Bridge crossing, in South Shuna

CHINA China has evacuated more than 1,600 citizens from Iran and hundreds more from Israel, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said on Thursday. Several thousand Chinese nationals are thought to reside in oil-rich Iran, according to state media reports.

CROATIA Diplomats and embassy staff from Tel Aviv and Tehran will leave most probably by land, Croatian Foreign Minister Gordan Grlic Radman said. 

FRANCE France will arrange convoy by the end of the week to get French nationals without their own means of doing so to the Turkish or Armenian borders from Iran to access airports in those countries, French foreign minister Jean-Noel Barrot said on Thursday. French citizens in Israel will be able to board buses starting Friday morning from the Jordanian border for airports in Jordan, with a flight chartered from Amman by the end of the week to aid the passage of French citizens who are vulnerable or in emergency situations, Barrot said.

GREECE Greece has evacuated 16 of its nationals and their families by land from Iran to Azerbaijan and is now working on their repatriation to Greece, the foreign ministry said on Thursday.

INDIA India said on Wednesday it has launched "Operation Sindhu" to evacuate Indian nationals from Iran. So far 110 Indian students have been evacuated from northern Iran, having crossed over into Armenia on June 17, India's foreign ministry said. The Indian Embassy in Iran has been assisting Indians in moving from areas seeing increased hostilities to relatively safer areas within the country and to subsequently evacuate them.

ITALY Italy is organizing commercial flights from Amman in the next days to allow its about 20,000 nationals living in Israel to leave the country if they ask for it, Italian foreign minister Antonio Tajani said on X. 29 of the about 500 Italian nationals leaving in Iran already left the country on Wednesday with assistance from the government, a diplomatic source said, adding it wasn't a proper evacuation.

JAPAN Japan's top government spokesperson Yoshimasa Hayashi said on Thursday Japan would send two Self-Defense Forces transport aircraft to Djibouti in eastern Africa in preparation for the evacuation of Japanese nationals from Iran and Israel. He also said the Japanese embassies in Israel and Iran were preparing to evacuate Japanese nationals to neighbouring countries by bus, with plans to implement evacuation as early as Thursday.

NEW ZEALAND New Zealand has temporarily closed its Tehran embassy and evacuated two staff and their family by land to Azerbaijan. New Zealand's government warned that closed airspace limited how they can assist citizens requesting to leave. Foreign Minister Winston Peters added that consular partners are considering evacuation flights when air space reopens and the government is working closely with Australia.

NIGERIA The Nigerian Government is finalizing arrangements for the emergency evacuation of stranded Nigerians in both countries, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement on Thursday.

NORWAY Norwegian foreign affairs ministry told Reuters it had no plans to evacuate Norwegian citizens from Iran, adding it had advised against travel to Iran for a long time. Norway's embassy remains operational in Tehran but currently does not accept visits from the public, its foreign ministry said.

POLAND A group of Polish citizens evacuated from Iran landed in Warsaw on Thursday morning, ending the evacuation from the country, the Foreign Ministry's spokesperson told journalists. The first plane evacuated from Israel landed in Warsaw on Wednesday morning and a second one is expected on Thursday afternoon from Amman, with 65 people on board. 

PORTUGAL Portugal has temporarily shut its embassy in Iran and evacuated four of its citizens via Azerbaijan. It has received 130 repatriation requests from citizens in Israel and is organising a repatriation flight, expected to land in Portugal later on Thursday, the foreign ministry said.

SERBIA A group of 100 Serbs have fled Israel via Egypt, ambassador Miroljub Petrovic said on Thursday.

SOUTH KOREA Eighteen South Korean nationals and two of their family members who are Iranian nationals were evacuated by land from Iran, South Korea's foreign ministry said in a statement on Thursday.

UNITED STATES The United States is working to evacuate U.S. citizens wishing to leave Israel by arranging flights and cruise ship departures, U.S. ambassador Mike Huckabee said in a post on X on Wednesday.

AUSTRALIA The Australian government evacuated a small group from Israel through a land border crossing on Wednesday, and would look for more opportunities over the next day, Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong said on Thursday. Around 1,500 Australians in Iran have registered for assistance, with another 1,200 Australians in Israel seeking to leave, Wong told reporters.