Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has defended the repatriation flights for Australians stranded in Israel and Gaza amid concerns passengers will be simply "dumped" in London.
He was speaking on Today this morning ahead of the scheduled departure of the first flight organised with Qantas from Israel today carrying hundreds of Australians to the British city.
"We're doing all that we can. This is an extraordinary logistical exercise, while a war is going on," Albanese said.
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"And today the first flight from Qantas will leave to London.
"It will carry 220 passengers. Qantas are also putting in place the logistical exercise to then fly from London back to Australia via Singapore, it's being put in place as we speak."
The flights will be free of charge for Australian citizens.
One of the estimated 10,000 expats living in Israel, David Birch, earlier told Today he was initially relieved when he heard of the repatriation flights.
"Then we started reading the fine print, which basically says we'll get you as far as London then you're on your own," Birch said.
"The expectation to uproot on such short notice, only to be dumped in London with no assistance, it's not a viable option for most of us."
Albanese said federal government officials were working with Qantas to plan how the Australians would be brought back after they arrive in London.
"It's not finalised at this point in time. But that is what Qantas are looking at doing ... But when you have a war zone, the first task is to get people to safety away from the war zone," he said.
"And that is what we are doing."
The PM said another repatriation flight had been organised with the potential for more to follow.
He said 1600 people from Israel, Gaza and the West Bank had registered.
"We're doing whatever we can in these circumstances to assist, and I'm very grateful that Qantas," Albanese said.
The Australian government was also in talks with Egypt about repatriating citizens stranded in Gaza.
"There are some 19 people who've registered to try to leave Gaza," Albanese said.
"We're speaking with the Egyptian government as well about how we get those people out of that area into safety as well."
The government-assisted Qantas flights will depart for London from Ben Gurion Airport, Israel's main international airport on the outskirts of Lod, not far from Tel Aviv.
Australian citizens wanting to leave Israel on the flights needed to register with the government's 24-hour consular emergency centre.
The centre can be called from overseas, including Israel, on +61 2 6261 3305, or on 1300 555 135 from within Australia.
