Anthony Albanese finally sends rescue jets to Israel to save stranded Aussies after terrified tourists slammed his government for doing nothing

The Australian government will assist citizens trapped in Israel in getting home amid ongoing violence.

The announcement comes after tourists who are struggling to get home begged Prime Minister Anthony Albanese for help, as commercial airlines cancel flights in and out of the under-siege nation.

Terrorist organisation Hamas launched a wide-scale attack on Saturday morning which has left hundreds of Israeli’s dead and sparked mass panic.

Mr Albanese announced in Melbourne on Wednesday that the government will ‘begin the assisted departure of Australians who want to leave Israel’.

‘Many Australians are experiencing difficulties with delays and cancellations with commercial flights.’

The government will offer support to Australians who do not already have a seat on a commercial plane booked, and these Qantas flights will depart from Friday. 

People standing on a rooftop watch as a ball of fire and smoke rises above a building in Gaza City on October 7, 2023 during an Israeli air strike

Australians in Israel who are interested in these flights must register with the government’s 24-hour consular emergency centre, Mr Albanese said.

The Prime Minister has faced criticism overnight for flying into Uluru for the final push of the Voice to Parliament referendum while Israel – and Australians overseas – were in crisis.

But he revealed in his speech that he has been assessing all options with his ministry to ensure Australians could get home safely.

Earlier, Daily Mail Australia revealed Aussies on the trip of a lifetime in Israel were demanding to know why the Australian Government had not already acted to help them escape.

Paul and Audrey West, from Newcastle, had been guiding a group of 33 holidaymakers through Israel for about two weeks when Hamas started firing rockets from the Gaza Strip. 

A fireball erupts during Israeli bombardment of Gaza City on October 9, 2023. Israel imposed a total siege on the Gaza Strip on October 9 and cut off the water supply as it bombed targets

They were on the beach on Tel Aviv when the bomb sirens went off, so they ran to the nearest café to seek shelter and spent the next four days in hiding while frantically trying to organise new flights home.

The couple’s daughter, Brittany West, said the group had been in Gaza about 24 hours before the attacks.

She said their original flights were cancelled and it was hard to get a seat on new ones due to limited options after airlines stopped operating through Israel.

‘Anything that came up was booked out quickly,’ she said

As the group watches travellers from other nations such as Canada, Germany, Romania, Greece, Hungary, India, Thailand and Brazil get repatriated by their own governments, they wonder why Australian leaders aren’t doing the same.

Pictured: The Australian tour group who were stuck in Israel when war broke out on Saturday. Thirteen are still stranded

Pictured: Tour guide Paul West, pictured front, and other members of the group in a bomb shelter in Tel Aviv

Anthony Albanese on the Yes campaign in the Northern Territory on Wednesday. The Federal Government  has since announced it was in talks with Qantas and Virgin to ask whether they could help with repatriation flights

Twenty members of the group managed to book flights for Tuesday, but about 13 are still waiting.

Now, staff at the hotel where they sought refuge are urging them to flee, saying ‘do everything you can to get out because it’s only going to escalate’.

Brittany said there’s a sense of urgency and fear from everyone who has been left behind.

‘They’re doing everything they can to get themselves onto a flight but they keep getting cancelled,’ she said.

‘I spoke to one of the couples last night and they’re honestly feeling abandoned by the government – we don’t understand why other governments are able to evacuate their residents.

‘There really needs to be a rescue mission, but if we wait too long it might be a recovery mission.’

Brittany said her parents had been running the tours with a company in Israel since about 2011, but this year was their first trip since the pandemic. 

Brittany’s mother Audrey posted a photo of Gaza just 24 hours before it became a warzone (pictured)

Paul and Audrey West (pictured) have been guiding Australians through Israel since 2011

She urged the government to charter a flight for Australians, like other nations, and has called on Aussies to put pressure on the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT).

DFAT didn’t respond to the group’s dilemma or why the Albanese Government wasn’t doing more.

Instead, a spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia the government is ‘monitoring the situation closely and remains in touch with local authorities’.

‘Presently there are commercial flights available and Australians in Israel who wish to leave should pursue those options,’ it said.

‘Our thoughts are with those killed and injured in these attacks and others affected.’

A few hours later, the Albanese Government announced it was in talks with Qantas and Virgin to ask whether they could help with repatriation flights.  

‘We are working on a range of contingency arrangements that I won’t detail publicly for obvious reasons,’ Mr Albanese told the ABC. 

Transport Minister Catherine King wrote on social media: ‘The Australian government is assessing all options to support Australians wishing to leave Israel and Gaza.’

Of the 10,000 Australians who are still in Israel, only 122 have arranged their own transport out of the war-torn nation. 

The couple (pictured centre and second right) work with a tour group in Israel (managers pictured front left and right)

Mr Albanese has also come under fire for his ‘pussyfooting’ response to anti-Semitic protests in Sydney on Monday.

John Howard, who led Australia in the wake of the September 11 attacks, said the Prime Minister’s denouncement did not go far enough.

‘Mr Albanese should make some unequivocal statements, as should the Foreign Minister,’ he told The Australian.

‘Instead of that there is pussyfooting and lukewarm condemnation. Then you have the New South Wales Attorney-General (Michael Daley) saying everyone should remain calm and go home.

‘How can you remain calm when demonstrators are invoking the memory of the Holocaust? People remain calm in that?’

The civilian death toll from the Hamas attacks on Israel climbed to more than 1,000, as the overall tally of fatalities reached 3,100 since war broke out on Saturday.

Australian-born grandmother Galit Carbone, 66, was among those killed in the Be’eri kibbutz, about 5km from the Gaza Strip. Her body was found metres from her home.